Moonglow

Part of the city's celebration is illuminated hot air balloons at dusk. Jon, Mindy, Jill and I went to watch the display of eight balloons that were tethered in the park.

The most impressive part is where they're all firing at once but we wished it would have been a little darker outside when they did.

This morning they're supposed to try to launch for a competition but with the winds the way they are I'm doubting they will. We'll know in about fifteen minutes!

What To Do?

What an odd weather day. We didn't know what to do. Look to the east, it looked pretty good...

...Look to the west, this is what we saw.

So rather than get caught in the rain we exercised indoors and canceled our outside chore plans. But we met Cher and her friend, Sue from Omaha, at the waterski show at Foster-Arend Park and, though it was cool, enjoyed the performance.

The last time this boat was on my blog it was a float in a parade. This angle it was at on takeoff is only about half as steep as on a different high speed acceleration. That's the one I wish I had a picture of!

I think (no pun intended) this is more the way it's meant to operate.If you can believe it, the guy in this video was just practicing!

Oh, Deer!

This time of year the deer are such a pretty brown. This guy was keeping watch for me coming out the deck door.

Brian And Kate's Big Day

Yesterday, June 27th, turned out to be beautiful all around. Take a look at this wedding party!

In spite of the forecast and cloudy skies, the only showers were ones of bubbles.

This may be a pretty fancy looking bunch......but they like to have fun too!!

It also being Cher and Alan's wedding anniversary, I think it was a bonus celebration for them to have their first-born married on the same day only 37 years later!Happy Anniversary Alan and Cher!!

Just For Practice

One more day and this couple will be the real deal! Tonight was the rehearsal for my nephew's wedding tomorrow. We went to take some pictures and then to the dinner following out at his folks' place. We met some really nice people and lucked out with the weather. No rain, no wind, no bugs. Now...if only tomorrow could be just as nice!

Happy Birthday A Day Late!

Jill's dad turned 82 yesterday and though we were thinking of him we forgot to post a wish on the blog for all to see. So we hope your birthday was a good one, Bob! Maybe you're having a little highball with Jill tonight!

She's Got The Beat

We listened to the Concert Band last night downtown. (Of course, that was after the curds and rings and ice cream!) Watch Natalie conduct. For the most part she's got pretty good rhythm!

Bumps And Bruises

Claire has an ongoing scrape on one of her knees. It's almost heeled when down she goes again. There are never many tears when that happens. But yesterday I had the scare of my life. I was sure I'd broken her leg when as I picked her up I had her leg stuck under the front bar of the changing table. There was quite a fuss and she didn't seem to be able to support her weight. But by the end of the morning all seemed to be normal and she was back to all smiles again!!

Monday Madness

I took Mom and Dad in to have their clotting times tested this morning. Because of the antibiotics they're on they were VERY high. So Jill had to deliver some new medication out to PI while I mowed up their place. In three days they need to get checked again since their results were so whacko today. As long as Jill was out that far we decided to golf 9 holes in Zumbrota. That's a beautiful course! It makes us think of being on one up north.

When we were almost to Mom's these guys were ambling across the road but scurried in a hurry as we got closer.

This is the second hot air balloon I've seen in the last week. If the weather's good and we can get up early we hope to take in the balloon races in the early hours of Saturday or Sunday...

...Most likely Sunday because Saturday might come too soon after a late Friday night at a wedding reception!!

Sunday Tidbits

Mom and Dad have been really under the weather since last Sunday. They've both had fevers and are coughing up stuff you don't want to know about. Mom said we could come visit but she wasn't going to let us in the house and expose us to what they have. Jill cheated and snuck up from behind when Mom thought she was just talking through the screendoor.Bev, Jill and I went over to Cher's and turned out about 300 mints in no time for Brian and Kate's rehearsal dinner. Of course, there was some taste testing going on. You know, we wanted to make sure they were just right!On the way home we swung into Jon and Mindy's for a late afternoon ice cream treat and a show of Natalie's new ball. She can entertain herself pretty well with it!

Nice Melons!

They had a great produce sale at HyVee this week. We got some nice cantaloupe, seedless watermelon and red grapes.

This And That From Yesterday And Today

Yesterday afternoon we went down to Iowa to visit Jill's folks. After Bob finished planting sweet corn in the spots where some had already died it was hot and we needed to have a little happy hour. I'm not so sure the mosquito should be the state bird of Minnesota though. Iowa grows 'em bigger and more prolifically!

We'd brought along two movies to watch..."RV" and "Poseidon". Since Bob had already seen the first he chose the latter. Afterwards he said we picked the wrong movie to watch!

So today we puttered around helping with a couple of chores. I made like Paula Bunyan and leveled one of their big tree stumps.Jill helped make a patch for the inside floorboard of the boat.

On the way home we encountered parts being transported for those big wind turbines like around Dodge Center. One of the boys told us once they're big enough to drive a semi-truck into. I never believed it until I saw these things up close. They're HUGE!!!Then we noticed they changed one of the Think Bank signs out by the airport. Used to be Bea Chowse. Now it's...They had a pretty cute one on a float at the CheeseFest parade that Mindy got a picture of on Sunday.I guess you'd call that a boat float!

There Will Never Be Another...

I really believe Tiger Woods will be the greatest golfer....EVER!!! I was lucky enough to be able to watch on TV the nineteen extra holes it took to win this weekend's major tournament. Jill, on the other hand, was on her way to the Cities so I was calling her with an update after each hole. She got to her destination just in time to see most of the deciding hole. Remind me to show you my Tiger Woods autograph and to tell you the story behind it!

Fathers And Sons

We had a low-key Father's Day celebration at Alan and Cher's today. I was lucky to gather those of the male gender for a group photo before Tony went off to work, Great-Grandpa went off to nap and the rest went to the parade in PI.

Me, I took a little snooze when I got home too but then had to watch the U.S. Open golf tournament. For anybody that doesn't already know it (and I think even my mom is aware of this!) let me just say, Tiger Woods is a-MAZING!!!

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to my Dad who also is Grand-Dad and Great Grand-Dad!!!

Inside Down By The Riverside

Last night Cher and I went to the kickoff concert for the summer Down By The Riverside series. Because of the weather it had to be moved indoors, which isn't quite the same as sitting in your lawn chair in the park on a warm summer evening! The performance was by Eric Burdon and The Animals, a group from the 60's. My first impression was, he's an old man. But then I thought, what does that say about me?!!

They actually sounded pretty good. But since no video taping was allowed I'm still trying to figure out how this clip got into my camera!! ;)

One thing about this concert series, people complain about always having these old groups from the 80's. Besides The Animals, coming up will be a couple more groups from the 60's! How will the letters to the editor sound this year?!

Good Day, Bad Day

It's a good day because the rain has stopped. It's a bad day because I was up listening to it most of the night waiting for daylight to come.

It's a good day because the basement's dry. It's a bad day because the sump pump has to run every minute to keep it that way. It's a good day because it DOES run every minute!

It's a good day because the worst on the weather radar has passed to the east. It's a bad day because now everything needs to be mowed.

It's a good day because I'm still around to see it all!

Wedding Prep

There's not much for us to do to get ready for Brian and Kate's wedding on June 27th other than find something to wear and have the batteries charged for the camera. But two things we're working on are teeth whitening and tanning. I get this awful farmer's tan around my ankles from wearing short socks with my tennis shoes. It's never going to even out so I tried one of those tanning lotions just to see if it would work. It did, after one application but I learned that you better put it on evenly or you can sure tell the spots you missed!!

Let The Party Begin!

We celebrated Natalie's first birthday today with both sides of the family and had a great time! She put on quite a show and was oblivious to all the cameras pointing in her direction.

(Before cake...)

(After cake!)

Showers Today

Today was the day for our event of the summer. We wanted to celebrate Kate and Brian's wedding on June 27th with a shower. However, this wasn't exactly what we had in mind!But we weren't going to let a little rain ruin the party. A bigger problem was, we weren't sure who's going to be the bride!!

When all was said and done this was the couple we recognized!!

Not too long after everyone left it looked like showers again.

We just hope by the end of June that it's gotten it all out of it's system!

Just Another Day At Work

I don't have any fun at my job.

Yeah, right.

"One"...And The Same?

June 3rd, the wedding. June 4th, a year later...the baby! One year ago today we were blessed with great-niece Natalie Jayne.

Are these two babies really the same?!

To see a really cool slide show of how she's grown in a year's time check in on Mindy's blog. Happy birthday, Natalie!!

3-2-1...And Then There Were None

Last night we watched our three babies as they stretched and fluttered their wings and made like goodbye. It was getting near dark but during one glance away from the nest off went #1.

So this morning there were still two left. We watched and watched and #2 took off sometime between looking out the sunroom window and moving to the kitchen one.

The last baby in there just needed a push. And apparently, once again, the push was us looking away from the window. Because I went upstairs to brush my teeth...took two minutes, I bet. And when I came back down everyone was gone! Up until yesterday three birds this size all fit in the one nest. They must stack themselves or something because it sure doesn't look like it'd be wide enough.

Now if we're lucky we'll get a second batch of birds in the same nest yet this summer. But I promise not to post so many bird blogs if they do!

As Jon Said..."Two Became One"

Two years ago today was a much sunnier day...in more ways than one. On a gorgeous afternoon in June Jon and Mindy were married! Happy Anniversary!!

There's A Reason....

We have an iron filter in the basement.

Need I say more?