Goodbye January

Snow pile at school...and its only the end of January!

Puffy Snow, Puffy Cat, Puffy Vest

 

Here’s Sue in her puffy vest serving as a bed for the puffy cat.

This is what Ravel was doing while Tailwheel was in Sue’s lap.

Here is Ravel engaged in crazy play time.

We are getting 5 inches off puffy snow this morning which started before rush hour and has continued until 11am. I am working on some of my class stuff on the computer and am glad to not be out in the snow today.

Here’s an interesting framing of John Metcalfe’s stained glass.

At least the temp is in the 20s. Sue said her students don’t want anymore time off from school because of cold or snow.

Here is the new floor in the Berg Estates of Northwestern Wisconsin. Very soon they are getting a new floor in the South Texas Estates kitchen, too.

Luger, Slider, Leaper, Spoiler

 

Happy 18th Birthday Johanna G!  Actually, this was my reaction when I heard that Johanna was coming to visit this spring.

Sue is off of school today. Again. This is her fourth cold day of the year. She has declared a sit-in. I’ll have to run out for some Chinese food later.

Here Sue played “spoiled” using all seven of her letters earning her a bonus of 50 points but curiously, she beat me by less than 50 points.

Ravel spent some time yesterday leaping onto the backs of the dining room chairs.

And in this game, despite her scoring the seldom heard of “double double word score” (two double words on one play equaling a quadruple score), I beat Sue but the win is in dispute because I used the word “luger” – one who participates in the luge. Sue didn’t dispute it at the time that I played it but today in the sport section of the Star Tribune, they described someone who participates in the luge as a “slider”. Sue may be awarded the judgment in a Scrabble Trial by Jury.

We saw one of the nerds on The Big Bang Theory wearing this exact sweater which I purchased from Target. I think it was the comic store owner, Stewart. Do I look like a Luger? I used to describe this as my Alan Harper Sweater (from Two and a Half Men).

A Coldie but a Goodie

 

Sue’s and many, many other schools including the U of M are closed again tomorrow for the third cold day in two weeks. I can’t remember the last time Sue went to school on a Monday! My band rehearsal will probably be cancelled tomorrow night since we rehearse in a middle school. It was to be the last rehearsal before our winter concert so who knows what we will do.

These are some old shots of the old boys that I found while looking for a photo of Johanna . . .

. . . to announce she is coming to Minnesota to visit us in April over Easter!  Hooray!  Thanks, Rudi and Elisabeth for sending your daughter to visit her American parental units. Johanna, you can use the phone that Christoph left behind. Mike, Judy, Duke, and Mary: you are invited to our house for Easter Dinner.

The cats have reclaimed Christoph’s room and will keep it well-used until Johanna arrives.

Happy Birthday sister in law Sunanda!  Also, Happy Birthday nephew Brett (photo not available)!

 

All of this snow has us thinking about summer and summer trips and mountains but this year we might be heading for the city instead of the mountains. Boston?  Maybe. Sue also has some dreams of visiting those little heard from states like Rhode Island and Delaware.

Crazy Cat Lady Confirmed

 

Here’s another shot from The Last Supper – I have no idea why Christoph was making that face (or why I posted this picture).  Actually, there was a picture that was worse than this but I couldn’t get it approved by The Censor because she was making a face.

 

Here’s the lion pride feeding on a kill together. I think the cat food flavor is “chicken”. Tailwheel has been pretty relaxed with his nephews.

We became true cat freaks today by attending The Saintly City Cat Show as part of the St. Paul Winter Carnival. It was held in the basement (where else would you keep the litter box?) of the Rivercenter below where the Roller Derby smackdowns take place.

Yes, this is what happens at a cat show.  Cats are poked and prodded, hoisted and handled, inspected and introduced as “my best cat”. We’ll have to wait until Sunday night or Monday to find out which cat actually won “best in show.”

I don’t think this was Sue’s first trip to the cat show. . .

There was a nice variety of cat breeds and plenty of people showing off their household pets. Each attendee was given a vote on who the best cat was. I chose a silver tabby American shorthair kitten because of her precise mask markings and distinct racing stripe.

 

Ravel sort of resembles a Bombay (Mumbai) except his head is maybe not round enough and he’s not a purebred.

The Best Household Pet was a red tabby not unlike our Nigel.

Here’s Sue crafting a chicken wild rice soup making good use of the elongated center burner.

Christoph, it is quiet around here with you gone!

Since Sunday

 

We heard from Johanna that Christoph made it back to Germany.  We assume he is back in school.  So what has he missed since we left?

Yesterday, five different college mailings arrived for Christoph.  Either they heard about his exceptionally good grades or he checked ‘yes’ on a box somewhere.  Considering we still get mail for one of the Korean girls from years back, the postman might be busy for the next few years. 

Thursday was the third day school has been cancelled due to cold weather.  Poor Christoph – he is probably sitting in French class right now while all the other SPP students are enjoying the day off. 

This carrot cake!  I made the filling for this cake on Saturday and planned to bake the cake as well.  After our oven died, I packed up my cake batter and baked it at the Kirkwood’s house. Homemade carrot cake from Carla’s recipe, pecan filling, cream cheese frosting, topped with toasted coconut.  Yum!!  We served this for our dinner with the Pastor Intern and his wife on Sunday night. 

New Oven

 

Over the weekend, our oven died.  We had already had a repair done a few years ago and it seemed crazy to put more money into a 13 year old appliance.  We shopped local and bought this at Plaza Appliance in West St. Paul.

I wasn’t home for the delivery but Doug took some good pictures. 

I’m not sure if we’ll be better cooks but the new one at least makes us look that way. 

Doug said it took about 10 minutes for two guys to take the old one out and bring the new one in.

In those few moments, Doug rescued a number of cat toys. 

Doug cooked up some chicken tacos the first night and we were finally able to bake the brownies that were mixed up for Christoph’s Last Supper. 

This one has gigantic grates which the salesman told us were good for moving pots around without having to lift it up.  Doug is eyeing up the center 5th burner for beer brewing. 

 

Yep, the time reads 11:59am.  I’m home today for our 3rd “cold” day of the year.  Amazing!!  There are supposed to be some cold days next week, too.  Could we be in for Cold Day #4 or #5??

auf Wiedersehen Christoph

 

We’ve had reports that Christoph is back in “The Motherland” where he was met by his parents and sister in Frankfurt.  He is the only student I can remember who left with the same amount of luggage he arrived with – one bag, one backpack and one trumpet (no cats although Ravel looks ready to go). The Mall of America held almost no appeal to this guy!

 

There was a fair amount of precision in the departure.  We left at exactly 8:41am after a planned departure of 8:40am.  Christoph’s bag weighed 48.5 pounds – just under the 50 pounds allowed for free. 

We helped him check in, said our goodbyes and watched him all the way through security.  Once he got to the other side of security, we lost track of him and assumed he headed toward his gate. 

We’ve heard reports that he had put the frosting his sister had requested in his trumpet case.  The frosting was apparently confiscated by TSA.  Whoops.  At least the TSA agent has a good story to tell after work.  “I had to pull this 15 year old German boy aside because he had a suspicious tube in a trumpet case.  Turns out it was a spray can of frosting”.

Other than that, it looks like the flight arrived on time and we’re sure there were happy (frosting-less) reunions on the other side of the world.   

Before he left, Christoph did some last-minute cleaning and bed making.  The cats spent the afternoon reclaiming the room. 

We thoroughly enjoyed our time with Christoph.  He is a funny, intelligent young man and we know we’ll see him again sometime. 

We had about 4 more inches of snow from Friday night until Saturday morning. 

With Christoph’s departure, it seems like Part 1 of winter is over and we’re into Part 2 … waiting for the Olympics to start.

Penultimate Supper

 

Today is Christoph’s last full day in the United States of America. He flies back tomorrow morning via Chicago and Frankfurt where his parents and Johanna will meet him at the airport. He’s spending six hours today at a robotics event at school. Last night we went to Lucky 13’s on highway 13 for a Juicy Lulu burger last supper. This photo in the St. Paul Cathedral is from a few weeks ago.

We haven’t posted many blog entries lately so here are some choice cuts of life at the BW house over the last several weeks.

Steve and Liz gave us, in addition to Bucky’s Gas Station shirts, some Texas beer glasses.

This was a couple of Monday’s ago when we experienced the coldest day in 10 years. This was the day (the first of two) that Sue and Christoph were off of school. After he hunkered down inside all day, I felt Christoph should experience the cold. I sent him outside to take the garbage out. I said “you might want to wear a coat” and he replied, “I am a tough German boy” or something like that.

Mr. Tailwheel has arrived for his stay in the city. He has been a lot more visible sooner than he usually is. He still doesn’t come out for dinner and breakfast with the rest of the pride but they are all getting along just fine.

Nigel was seen with a mouthful of white fur after a full-on scrap but at least our boys aren’t stalking Tailwheel like he’s a plump Warthog piglet.

Everybody’s happy and relaxed when the entire lion pride gathers together.

We got about four inches of snow last night.

Sue is making a carrot cake for our small dinner party tomorrow night. Daniel, our pastor intern and his wife Leslie are coming over for some homemade curry.