The shades are up in my front little ‘office’ room for the first time in a while. It’s usually so bright and reflects of my monitors, so it doesn’t work out well. But today the sun must be at the right angle or something. AND it’s warmer than it’s been. 18°!! Weather.com informs me that it “feels like 4°” but, honestly. It feels pretty heavenly compared to the last week or two. And hopefully this front office room will be painted by the end of the weekend.

2010 is almost over. And 2011 is going to be a crazy year for us. Among other things, I need to start a new blog (since my husband evidently doesn’t enjoy this whole blogging concept and I want a more anonymous outlet as well. (Not like anybody i know reads this blog anyway, but oh well.) We’re also going to be listing the house, and hopefully moving to Sioux Falls for His education. We may be in Sioux Falls for a couple years, but that’s okay. Any change is a good change right now. (Remind me I said that later, okay?)

Okay, off to finish some “Christmas” things. We’re mailing some stuff and at this rate there’s no way it’ll make it there by Christmas day, but that’s pretty typical with me.

Off to finish finding my tripod…

Well, I didn’t really spill it… You know how all this soda comes out of the bottle while you’re twisting open the cap sometimes? Yeah, that’s what happened. One of the bowling alley owners, Betty, saw the spillage, asked me if I spilled my pop, and I sheepishly said “yeah..”

^ Sister explaining what went wrong with that shot. Suuuuure, Sis.

Betty and her husband own this small-town bowling alley in rural Minnesota. It’s a quaint little operation, and my nephews are regulars there for Midnight Bowling on Saturday nights from 8:30 to  midnight or so. The ceiling is water-stained in places, and old wood paneling (that reminds me of the church I went to as a kid) cover the walls behind the jukebox and all the arcade games that line the walls. There’s pool tables, and fake wood tables and cafe-like chairs scattered between the entrance and the bowling lanes. It’s all so vintage, it’s really great. The only thing that feels a bit out of place is the fluorescent lighting, but even that is minimized when they turn the lights down via a switchboard when the bowling starts.

^ This is Betty.

Betty is perfect for her job. She has a voice that carries really well, which is helpful, since she has to call out if there’s “money” in certain lanes depending on strategically placed colored pins. I had a chance to win $15 at one point. But yeah. I’m not even remotely talented and/or lucky at bowling. Now if there would have been a prize for lowest scores for the evening I believe I might have won – out of the thirty other people that were that that evening. (Yeah, I’m that bad.) Though I did win 75 cents by the end of the night.

Betty’s husband took one of my infrequent-bowling nephews aside for some “special tutoring”. It was really cool. I mean, he saw a kid who could use a bit of advice on how to bowl and offered help. I think my nephew was slightly embarrassed, but the guy persisted in attempting to teach him anyway.

Honestly, I’m kind of envious of that kind of job. It’s really ideal in a way. You get to watch people more-or-less enjoying themselves with their families or friends. (I think it’s safe to say that bowling is more of a social gathering type of ‘sport’ than anything else.) You’d have your regulars that you get to know by name over time. I think Scott and I should open a bowling alley now.

Okay, not really. But hey. It’d definitely be a change from our normal existences.

^ A Nephew. He’s good at bowling.

^ 11 Year Old Nephew who bowled wayyyyy better than me.

^ Another pro-bowler-nephew.

^ Yes, Niece, I’m taking your picture.

There’s a lot of things I’d like to be blogging about. But then I think of the various types and varieties of people who could stumble upon and read it and I kind of want to blush, close my shades, and put on an extra sweater. And it’s not like I’d be blogging about anything that I wouldn’t want to discuss with anyone face to face.. I guess I’m just worried about peoples perceptions of me. I mean, maybe there are some things I wouldn’t want potential future people I may work with to know. Maybe? I really don’t know. I’ve always been of the quieter, less-is-more nature. The “shy one” that never had much to add to group settings. Boring, mundane, lame, and definitely not the life of any party.

But every once in a while, I stumble across a blogger who is honest, transparent, and doesn’t care what other people think of them. And it’s refreshing. It feels like they’re “truly living” rather than hiding behind some vague gauzy curtain. It’s bright and clear. And usually lovely. Am I lame to find other people’s day to day lives exciting?

“Any patch of sunlight in a wood will show you something about the sun which you could never get from reading books on astronomy. These pure and spontaneous pleasures are “patches of Godlight” in the woods of our experience.” – C.S. Lewis

Well, I’ll continue to struggle with what I feel I can blog about.. I talk like this blog will be around for a while. Haha. Right, sure.

I guess I didn’t foresee “consequences” for building a deck. I thought only of the pros. Someplace to put a grill, a set of patio furniture, some potted plants. Sounds all good to me.

Critters like decks. It makes perfect sense now. A semi-covered place to spend the nite, someplace to hide from the world if you’re stuck in a town and need someplace to nap, a good base for a place to nest up and spend the winter.

Last winter a rabbit stayed under there. I don’t know the specifics, but there was a well-defined rabbit path in the fresh snow when I’d go out to get the mail.

More recently a scruffy stray cat took up residence. She’s since moved into the basement part time, and a little box ‘shelter’ we rigged up on the top of the deck, complete with a rug, and a plastic bag on the outside for weatherproofing.

Thursday night a skunk visited and harvested the last green pepper that was on the potted pepper plant. It left most of it by the clothesline.

And then yesterday I heard the husband calling from the back door in a semi-’what’s-happening-this-can’t-be-real’ voice. There was a cream colored cat weaving herself through his legs, completely unabashed that he wasn’t paying any attention to her. I think the word Husband used was “incorrigible.” She treated Gage like another person, and rubbed her back on his front side. Gage was a bit taken aback, I think.

I went over to the edge of the deck to say hi to the new stranger– and happened to see two fluff balls crawling under the fence. I think a brief moment of insane laughter followed.

I called the humane society in town, and they kindly asked if we’d mind “holding on to them” for a little while, as they’re full. As all humane societies are, all the time, especially with cats. It’s really sad. Spay and neuter your cats people!

And the deck? It’s now the jungle gym.

This is what she does when she needs to type something that she wants to print off:

1. She opens up her email app, Mail.
2. She finds a message that I sent her.
3. She types what she needs to type, whatever that happens to be.
4. She hits ‘Print.’ It prints, on her lil’ HP Inkjet printer.
5. She adds a note to the top of the email saying something like “sorry, you can ignore this. I just needed to print something” and clicks ‘Send.’

There are a few amusing things about this. a) I find it rather cute that she thinks she needs to send the email, rather than simply trash it when she’s done. Cute, yes?*  b)  – oh yeah, she uses MAIL to type things in order to print them. And c) I get to see these things she’s printing off and wondering what they’re for. It’s like a puzzle sometimes.

*I informed her maybe a year ago that she could trash these before sending. I actually kind of miss getting those random emails.

She’s been asking that I teach her “how to type” the right way for a while now. She calls it “how to type.” But she knows very well how to type. She’s always had a typewriter or some form of word processor around all the time while I was growing up. When she says “how to type”, she means “how to use Word or Pages.”

So this weekend I made a quick trip to the parents. We tied a comforter the night I got there. (Thanks Mom!) The next morning we tackled Pages (Pages is like Word, but for Macs, fyi). Exciting, right? I found a few other interesting gaps in her computer knowledge. But overall? I don’t know many other 68 year olds that can manage that machine as well as she can. I really wish I could get a copy of the “notes” she took while we were going over things. The way Mom takes notes in general is pretty crazy. There is no order. Text goes up the side. Little notes are added in strange places. Anyway. I won’t bore you with any more details, but I think I got enough laughs out of it to make up for the frustration of explaining “selecting text” for the 7th time to make it more than worthwhile. Did it stick? We’re not sure yet. But it was fun, so it doesn’t really matter, right?

2) Mac things. Made of wood. Mustaches.

3) Organizational things. For gadgets (and keys.)

4) German made pencil? Yes please.

5) My 30D. And my Sigma wide angle lens (10-20 mm).

6) Oh dear.

7) Yes I would.

tastykitchen.com.

9) My husband and great-nephew. [This list (obviously) is not intended to be an ordered list. ]

My husband and great nephew. Aren't they adorable?

10) Windy days. Like today.

::poof::

They were amazing. He guaranteed that they’d be good. But I had no idea.

I mean, I’m not a huge meat fan.

Moo.

So good. Marinaded to meaty perfection. They were delicious.

And I got my  new (eBay) camera today. What a great combination, eh?

They have these nifty document pocket things at Target. I keep looking at the piles on my desk and mentally rearranging the stacks to see  if they naturally sort themselves out to make these said document pockets useful and cut down on some desk clutter. Not enough to excuse a Target run. Shucks.

Did I mention my wedding band is in Lake Superior? (Honestly it’s still kind of a sore topic. So we’ll leave it at that for now.) Yeah. It almost made it 10 months. The ring, that is. I think our marriage is still doing okay. Ten (10) months today. Pretty crazy. We should celebrate. 10 months on the 10th day of the 2010th year. (We’ll leave out the month (8) since it doesn’t fit the vibe… )

And the color of the Mystery-Walmart-Clearance-Hibiscus is… this color.

Not bad. Considering it could have been pink or red or something hideous like that. This is almost orange. Orange is cool.

And… back to reality. Bye.

Which may or may not be in the near future. I bought a ‘new’ (used) camera. And a Sigma 10-20 mm lens. I’m so excited. I’ll hopefully get both by next weekend. I imagine these new toys will fill many hours in the coming weeks.

Did I mention it’s been like Christmas around here lately? I don’t know what overcame me the last couple weeks.

I ordered a Breville Juicer, a Breville Submersion Blender, and a Frigoverre pitcher on Overstock.com. All three items were shipped separately. Fedex dropped off the juicer yesterday; today the submersion blender appeared at the front door; and UPS is still working on the pitcher (the 100% impulse buy. This is what happens when you go to “check prices” on KitchenAid mixers on Overstock.) Now to attempt to rearrange my kitchen to make room for this new gadgetry…

Peace, re-assurance, pleasure, are the goals I seek,
I cannot crawl one inch outside my proper skin:
I talk of love –a scholar’s parrot may talk Greek–
But, self-imprisoned, always end where I begin.

Only that now you have taught me (but how late) my lack.
I see the chasm. And everything you are was making
My heart into a bridge by which I might get back
From exile, and grow man. And now the bridge is breaking.

For this I bless you as the ruin falls. The pains
You give me are more precious than all other gains.