Save Big Money on Root Beer

  

Here is Dorene enjoying a super sweet sugary orange cream soda at Sprecher. Sprecher brews many beers but their best seller is the regular old garden variety no alcohol, no fun root beer. Sprecher’s biggest distributer is Menards. It is available in 25 states.

Yesterday, Sue and I took a hike at the Minnesota River Wildlife Preserve near the Hilton Hotel in Bloomington next to interstate 494. This, readers, is a turtle covered in pond green stuff. He walked away from us briskly probably because he heard the murmuring of little kids right behind us on the trail.

This is a huge wetlands area surrounding the Minnesota River. If you squint, you can see a power plant smokestack in the background.

 

We saw a few birds but nothing else on four legs except for the occasional chipmunk. They say to see wildlife, you should walk at dusk or dawn.

 

Here you can see some giant Bloomington strip hotels up on the ridge.

 

We moved the cat perch near the window for the day. Ravel had some outside time.

 

Sue bought a rosebush with another gift card from Gerten’s.  That’s our raspberry bush on the left.

A rose?

A yellow flower?

We will smoke a turkey breast today. We might have some success using this grill’s built in thermometer. 250 degrees of indirect heat should be maintainable. I set up the chairs for my pastor intern meeting tomorrow night.

Pastor Intern Miriam

And finally, we’d like to say thank you to our military veterans who have fought to preserve peace and the American way of life for almost 250 years. God bless America.

Orange Cat / Black Coffee

Here are some pictures from the spring—mostly of the cats as usual. Happy 42nd Birthday to Steve Berg!

When we went to the fancy restaurant in the Valley for mother’s day, we passed through the town of Ellsworth where rumor has it they sell cheese.  Here is the proof.

 

We’ve been talking a bit about a kitchen remodel. In this wall next to the fridge we are considering insetting a cabinet for foodstuffs. It would intrude upon the closet behind it but I am thinking it would be a shallow cabinet only about 10 inches deep. The closet behind would still be usable for Sue’s massive rolling stock of shoes.

We might also consider extending the peninsula out a foot or so which would give more counter space and more cupboard space underneath. Of course we would keep all the newish things in the kitchen like the floor, the stove and I guess that’s it.

In Milwaukee Mother Dorene and I did a couple of fun mother-son activities including visiting the Milwaukee Public Museum. This is a model of the original Sampson the Gorilla who live for thirty some years at the Milwaukee County Zoo. They recreated his face from Sampson’s death mask.

 

Then we walked up the escalator right into the middle of a buffalo hunt.

It is a pretty nice museum and much bigger than I remember it. The Streets of Old Milwaukee exhibit is still there but as it is always night in the exhibit, none of my photos turned out.

The next day after golfing with Sister Diane, we went on the Sprecher Brewery tour. The actual tour was average but the beer samples were excellent.

 

We found this outlet of the Stone Creek Coffee chain on 5th Street between St Paul Avenue and the elevated highway 794. Mom and I always like finding new coffee shops to quaff quality coffee.

Round Nigel

We’ve had a lot of rain here but summer is almost upon us. After a busy couple of weeks, Sue and I will do some chillaxing this weekend.

Planted

This weekend's weather was perfect for planting. I picked up a gorgeous basket at Gertens as well as some Dahlias for the front and some Snapdragons for the garage.

I found a mysterious flower growing in our front bushes. Any help identifying it is appreciated. Neither neighbor plants much so thus has done some traveling.

Now that the windows are open, the Snoopervisors are out in full force.

It's a good thing the guy who hates the smell of lilacs has been at work all weekend because they are blooming all over the neighborhood!

Brothers

Check out these cute boys!

Church Windows

We are getting some price quotes on replacing some more of our original windows. Readers of this blog will remember we replaced some of our original windows in 2008. We would get the crank out type for the kitchen and then replace the two smaller bedroom windows which don’t even really close properly anymore. We will do the windows before starting our inevitable kitchen remodel which will really just be the kitchen counter and cabinets and sink and light fixtures.

The French horn player who I know in the Philadelphia Orchestra always posts on Facebook what’s on her stand this week—what the orchestra is playing that week. They are doing Mahler’s 10th Symphony this week. I should have booked my ticket earlier to hear that one. Here’s what’s on my stand for my bone quartet gig on Saturday night: The Washington Post March, Puttin’ on the Ritz, Peacherine Rag, and Over the Rainbow. Classics of the repertoire.

Is this a selfie?

While driving someone for Neighbors today I stopped off at the Cathedral of St. Paul. I sat in the cathedral for a little meditation and then took a walk down Summit Ave.

35E as seen from a mysterious path/road that runs along the base of the bluff.

This is neat. It is the old tunnel entrance for the Selby Avenue street car line. The street cars needed a less steep grade to get up the hill so they had to tunnel through the hill. The tunnel is now sealed up but the tracks are still there.

 

The Cathedral of St. Paul on a cloudy day.

 

View of downtown from the cathedral steps.

Dirk of the NFL

Look at the brothers so nicely sharing their kitten platform!

 

One of these days this platform my break under the weight and force of their leaping. They look the same size and shape but Nigel is actually wider, a little heavier, and not as long as Ravel.

 

Today is nice but only about 60 degrees.

Ravel with his new scratching post—a three-posted super structure. He moves from level to level.

 

Sue went to a painting class with a group of teacher friends. This is an original Sue completed in about an hour. I like it.

 

It’s in Johanna’s room. The Vikings drafted a German American Football player. He’s a wide receiver and he reportedly wants to be the Dirk Nowitzki of the NFL. We alerted Christoph. By the way, he’s not German-American. He’s a German man from Germany who plays American football in Germany.

 

Today’s artful shot.

Do you think it is time to cut the grass?  Maybe tomorrow. We’ll see.