Eating my way through Denver

On Saturday, I visited at Laila's house and then we went to dinner at On The Border.  I am so hungry for good, spicy Mexican food.  We had marg's and great food and a very nice visit.

We watched part of the Badger's game before I drove back to Roche's.

It was a bad ending for the Badgers though.

Hobb's is a big dude

On Friday I Roche and I stopped at Leanna's for a short visit on our way home from lunch with the Garthrights.  I got to meet Hobbs.  He is a very healthy cat.  

He is also very friendly.  Hobbs weighs in at 21 pounds.

Wanda from my Android

Denver!

It was a chilly morning leaving Murdo on Thursday.

I always like staying in Murdo.  

The Best Western there is so nice and I feel like I know the folks at the motel.

The drive through the sandhills was really nice, lots of sunshine and 50 degrees.

Minnechaduza Creek
Sandhills of Nebraska

Do you see a coyote?

I wanted to stop to take a picture when I saw this coyote sitting among these Hereford beef cattle.  

When I circled back he had moved into the taller grass.  

He certainly wasn't upsetting the cattle, they must be pals.

Driving into Denver yesterday was interesting.  It was a beautiful sunset but pretty hard driving straight into it.  I managed to snap a picture or two while I was driving - I know, safety first.

Great to be here, it's like I never left.

Roll out the white carpet

I arrived safely in Colorado and it was surprising how much snow is on the ground.  This panoramic picture is at the rest stop in Wiggins, Colorado.  The drive through Nebraska today was nice.  Sunny and uneventful.

Wanda from my Android

My Grandfather was born and raised in Tyler, MN

My Dad's father, Ansgar Johansen, was born & raised in Tyler, MN.  I had never been there and Wednesday on my drive, I saw a little sign pointing North that said Tyler, so I took a side trip.

Tyler was hit hard by a storm in early July of this year and the clean up is still underway.

Looks like the big cottonwood trees took a beating but this pine tree was unharmed.

My grandparents and aunts and uncles have all traveled to the Danish Tyler Meetings for years, so I looked around and found the Danebod Danish school campus.

Click on the photographs to see the full sized pano.

Still some Johansen's in the community it seems.

This next pano is from the Visitor's Center at Chamberlain, SD

A very nice rest stop with a view of the Missouri that can't be beat.

The evening finished up with a fantastic sunset.

I was lucky enough to come upon an exit in time to safely pull off I-90 and click away.

Granite Falls, MN

Click on the photograph to see it full sized.

Chilly, cloudy, but no snow!  The Red Sled is running like a top so far.  Heading for Murdo,  Sd for tonight.  More later...

Wanda from my Android

Joy of Juxtaposition

A Joy of Juxtaposition occurs when you see or read one thing that reminds you of another and then shortly thereafter, see or read about the "another" thing you were reminded about.

A couple of days ago, Ev said "I think I would like to have a dolphin for a pet".  

I laughed, seemed like a funny thing to say.

Today, as I was driving across N Minnesota, I saw these guys 'swimming' across of field.

I think it qualifies.

A little further down the road I took this photograph.

I wonder what will happen to all of these orange orbs?

Let's Go

I am slowly packing up to head West today.  Tonight I am staying in St. Cloud, so it is a short drive which makes getting ready nice and relaxing.

Yesterday the folks and I made the cheese run to the Co-Op in Alpha and then went to Luck.  The folks had a visit with Gus while I worked on Ryan's computer some more.

When I went to leave Ryan's house, I was surprised to find this artwork on the front seat of my car.

Nice picture by Milena

Elliana did a nice job on her drawing too

The Iowanians are back in town

Dad and Ev are back in Rice Lake.  

We are having a nice visit and then I will be heading off to Colorado on Tuesday.  The cats are happy to have more people to pet them.

Today I planted the 60 daffodil bulbs that I ordered last Spring.  

Geesh!

NO MORE bulbs for at least a couple of years.

Barley found an interesting place to perch yesterday.

The bird feeders have been literally full of finches today.
Hops was watching them intently and the finches didn't care.

Another help desk visit

On Tuesday evening I had a call from nephew Ryan asking for a little help with his PC.  So, off to Luck I went on Wednesday.  It was a beautiful day for a drive.  A fresh deer kill on the road had about 20 birds eating and a big red tailed hawk.  Of course, they didn't stick around for the photo.

After spending the afternoon at Ryan's, their computer was working again and I had a nice visit with his family.  His daughters are so cute and growing up so fast.

Milena and Elliana

Milena made me a red and white bead bracelet while I was there and Elliana made sure I had coffee to drink while I worked on their computer.  Cam sent me home with a nice selection of her canned goods as well as a big bag of delicious apples.  It was a very profitable trip to Luck for me!!

Getting Organized

My folks are scheduled to arrive here on Friday and I am scheduled to leave on Tuesday for a couple weeks in Colorado.  So, I am trying to get some errands done and tidy up around here for the folks.

Haircut, post office, return some purchases to Farm & Fleet, etc. etc.

Today I took a drive over to Glenn's Lake Cottage to drop off my old sewing machine for Kaija.  Glenn will deliver it from there for me.  The lake was really pretty as the sun peeked out from behind the clouds.

It really is a sweet spot.
Click on the photograph to see it larger.

The view from the lake of the cottage.

Today is my last piano lesson for 3 weeks, I hope I don't backslide while I am on the trip.

I think I'll take my books along in case I get a chance to practice on someone's piano.

It is more fun now that I can finally play a song or two that actually sounds like music.

Lunch Up North

I met my friend Mary for lunch in Hayward today.  I didn't realize until today that I have never been down the main street of the town.  After lunch I walked into a few shops and am going to be sure to go back.  Some of the shops are really touristy but some are more interesting.

When I left Hayward, I headed to our Sandcastle cabin to drop off a few items.

I took this panoramic photograph with my new Android phone.

It's different up in that country without leaves on the trees.

Feels more like the 'boonies' in a way, but still pretty.

Help Desk X2

Last week I spent a day working on getting the tech folks to clean a wicked Restore Virus off Kyle & Heather's laptop.  This week Kyle called and said that they were having some error messages and a weird music problem.  I ran over there Sunday after the game.  The tech people remoted in again, but this music deal was strange.  About 15 minutes after the computer was started, a very faint music would run, even when Internet Explorer was closed and no programs were running.  Eventually the Boot Link virus was isolated and removed but in the process we ended up having to do a factory restore on the computer.  

Bye bye to any files they had and and about 12 hours later, 

their laptop is back to factory basics.  

Whew.  Finally.

Jens pretty much slept through most of the computer work, although he did sit on my lap for a short time.

I don't think it was his thing...yet anyway.

Stella snapped with photo with my phone, but the swing was in motion so it's blurry.
Jens is a good baby, happy to just hang out.

Stella and Ruby thought it was fun to sit on my lap and look at the computer wallpaper picture.

so I took this little picture, blurry but you get the idea.  

Fun girls.

Stella and Ruby's birthdays are close together, so Stella wrote all the thank you notes for both girls.

Can't beat a thank you note like this!

**********^^^**********

It has been so stinking windy!  I am no fan of wind.

On Sunday Big Butternut Lake had white caps.

When I got back to Rice Lake today, the gas grill was on its side with a broken handle and who knows what else, probably find out in the Spring.  

I hope this wind settles down pretty soon.

Big Moon for lunch

I met Glenn at his lake cottage today.  He was doing some dock work for his neighbor and I brought Subway for lunch.  I mostly stood around and chatted while he worked.  It was such a nice day, kind of humid, very warm and the clouds moving by.  

The water almost looked like oil when the sun hit it just right

The clouds were so interesting today, weather was moving in.

Some of the time it looked like diamonds on the water.

We watched a couple of flocks of small water fowl fly quickly across the lake, just above the water and then circle back.  I'm interested to figure out what those birds were, fun to watch.  I left the house without my good camera, so only had the phone for photos.

Help Desk

Sometimes I am the family help desk when computers want to act up.  On Monday night Kyle called me and told me that their laptop had some problems.  After asking a few questions, I decided the best idea was for me to go over to Luck on Tuesday and take a look.  I had not been to Luck since Harry's birthday party so was hoping to catch Lois for lunch and then work on the laptop.  But, Gus is back in the hospital so Lois was going to the Cities on Tuesday to be at the hospital.  He continues to struggle with his health and the many blood problems he has.  It is tiring for both Gus and Lois and we all hope that soon the doctors will find a treatment that works for Gus.

I thought I might spend an couple of hours on Kyle's laptop problem, so arrived just after lunch and started the work.  It was a serious virus called a Restore Virus and I knew right away that this would take professional help.  Luckily, Kyle has Secure It Plus for his antivirus service and I was able to contact them.  They took over and I just had to be there to reconnect them to the laptop and occasionally click on a button.  Some 8 hours later, the laptop was fixed and back to good health.

At least I got to see little Jens and all the rest of Kyle and Heather's kids.

Ruby and her little brother Jens.

Nothing sweeter than a sleeping baby Jens.

He's a sweet boy, Jens Henry Valdemar - big name for such a little man

Ruby seemed like she was telling Jens something important

Holding little brother's hand

Looking pretty serious for a baby.

 Ruby and Stella gave each other haircuts about a month ago, you can see that they both have some pretty short bangs, but no one got hurt and it will be fun for them to see photos of their handiwork when they are grown ups.

I did get a short visit with Lois in the evening before heading home and took a couple snaps of her very cute kitties, Topaz and Toby.

 Toby is the dark cat and Topaz the lighter.  

This weather is insane! (in a good way)

Warm again today.

We still have not had frost so today I picked a 1/2 ice cream bucket of cherry tomatoes off the plants in the big pots.  The tomatoes are super sweet, a little small and the skin is a little chewy, but very tasty.

My first harvest of tomatillas (toe-ma-tee-ohs),
,now to make some Salsa Verde.
The flowering beans were grown from 4 seeds, next year I'll be able to share with the whole family.

The geraniums are continuing to bloom too.

I suppose when it (that season that shall not be named) comes, 

it will really come, but for now, this is some killer weather.