Cathy in the Wright

Easter Dinner Ought To Be Fun

My father is a UND grad. I'm from BC. And my sister is a Spartan. Can't wait to see who gets to gloat over the ham.

Frozen Four.

Futile

Since it is such a beautiful day, I decided to sweep out my garage. I started with a kitchen broom, which was much like trying to paint the outside of your house with a toothbrush. I switched to a push broom. Then a grain scoop.

A half hour later, I barely put a dent in all the gravel, dirt, and sand that has piled up all winter.

My father-in-law still has the plow on the front of his truck...and he is conveniently out of town. But even that might not do the trick. I think at this point, I'm just going to have the township grader come out and level the surface and forget about ever seeing concrete again.

Or sell the rights to strip mine for gravel.

HGTV's Next Concept Show: Playdate!

One of The Governor's preschool friends came over yesterday. After they took off their shoes, The Gov said, "C'mon, Russ, I've give you a tour of the place."

I was fully expecting The Tour to consist of "Here's my room" and "This is where we keep the XBox." I should know by now never to underestimate The Gov. Russ got the full tour, complete with running commentary:

Here's my brother's room. DO NOT TOUCH ANYTHING IN HERE! The Senator will be mad.

This is where our dog sleeps. You should not lay down on his dog bed or you will get covered with his dog hair.

The kitchen. We get lots of ladybugs in here by the windows. Sometimes I find a box elder bug too. If you can't step on 'em, you have to get the Dust Buster.

The livingroom. We can't jump on the couch, but we can build a fort with the cushions once Mom moves the boxes under the coffee table.

This room doesn't really have a name. It's just where the pinball machines are. I saw a spider under the pinball machine once.

Poor Russ just followed along obediently, making small "hmmm" noises when appropriate. I left the tour to go fix lunch when they reached my room. The Gov pointed out the master bath and said, "Here is my mom and dad's bathroom. Behind the curtain: a shower!" I didn't want to stick around and hear him inspecting the grout. I started to fear that the next stop would be, "Here is our oven, where my mom hid the frying pan she failed to clean after breakfast."

I called the boys in to the kitchen for lunch. "But Mom! Russ hasn't seen the laundry room yet."

Next week, Russ returns with his interior design plans and turns The Outpost into a showplace. All for under $500.

CLEAR!

Looks like my blog flatlined. I'm not sure it's worth hauling out the defib paddles, but what the heck. I can always neglect it for another couple of weeks.

Yesterday I drove into Minneapolis to have lunch with an old high school pal. I don't get down into her neck of the woods very often. I got to view the Hiawatha Light Rail for the first time. Pretty neat. I felt a pang of nostalgia; it reminded me of living in Boston when my favorite past time used to be hopping on the "T" and heading downtown to the Aquarium for an afternoon. Of course, hopping on public transportation is fun if you're single and have nothing too pressing to do. Wouldn't be my first choice of Point A-Point B with two kids and four bags of groceries.

Since I was a little early for lunch, I drove down Hiawatha Ave for a while to check out the neighborhood. I grinned when I saw the Burger King at Hiawatha and 46th. Their sign out front announced "Military Personnel 20% Off." Cool. Especially since I'd be willing to bet that 75% of the cars that go through their drive-thru have sported Wellstone! or Kerry/Edwards bumper stickers at one time or another.

Saturday we were all up in Alexandria, MN for the boys' first Tae Kwon Do tournament. Both boys seemed to enjoy the meet, but I'd be hard pressed to say that they didn't enjoy staying at the hotel and swimming in the pool with some of their fellow yellow belts even more. The highlight: The Governor brought home a silver medal for board-breaking in his division. (Little Ninjas). He held up is medal and took a victory stroll through the middle of the gym, almost walking into a sparring match. Fortunately, The VP reached him before he got his head round-housed into next week.

And speaking of The Gov, he is waltzing around here right now in his underwear telling me to check out his little white heinie.

Suddenly, your Monday at the office isn't seeming quite so bad, is it?

Reason Why I Love Living In The Country: No. 351

Just a stone's throw from The Outpost.

No word on when raccoon might also be available.

Day Two

School is canceled again. I'm not sure how I feel about this. On one hand, it means two days in a row without having to shower or change out of my pajamas.

On the other hand, the Legos are starting to lose their appeal, and I'm too sore from shoveling and trying to right the snomobile every time we flipped that I don't know if I can face any more outdoor fun.

Desperate times, desperate measures. I think I will allow the boys to trade one of their weekend Xbox days for today.

Aelfheld, have one for me!

Aside to Tiff and Andy: Yes, I do plan to shower before tomorrow night.

Odds And Ends

School is canceled today. While there is a mere dusting of snow on the ground right now, apparently we're in for about a foot of white slop this afternoon. While I understand the wisdom of wanting to avoid sending children home in the afternoon in a snow storm, part of me marvels at what a punch of prissy wimps we've become.

In my day (anyone under 25 is allowed to groan and tune out at this point), school was canceled only if the snow was over the bus hub caps AND the road was first coated with an inch of glare ice. And school was never, ever canceled the night before. Nope. You were required to get out of bed as scheduled and listen to AM radio as the announcer ticked off the list of closed districts. Last night, dozens of schools had already thrown in the towel, and the local television station offers to text or email you when your school closes.

So the boys are home all day today. Tae Kwon Do lessons have been axed as well. And I am so grateful to The VP who picked up a couple of enormous Lego Star Wars kits last night on his way home from work. Not a day passes when I don't humbly acknowledge that the man is way too good for me.

And speaking of good men...former hometown boy Chris H. takes on the local newspaper columnist in the Letters to the Editor. Well done, Chris. And just because I know you're insanely jealous that we have snow right now and you don't:

I composed that earlier this winter, but the sentiment remains. Only now I have a lot more to send.

And I'm posting this because this is something I would do.

For all you poor Minnesota saps who had to drive into work today knowing the ride home is going to be pure hell - I feel for you. At 4:30 p.m., when you are brushing the snow off your cars, the boys and I will observe a moment of silence in your honor before we add the marshmallows to the hot cocoa and sit in front of the television watching cartoons. May you be home before the ten o'clock news.