Dancing With The Stars

I give these girls a 10!

An Ounce Of Prevention

I got my flu shot yesterday and was that ever slick. My appointment lasted about five minutes and since I was ten minutes early I was out of there before I was even supposed to be in!

Paychecks

Claire has been writing out the check lately.

I almost think these are more valuable than the real ones. Love 'em!

Those That Survived

This morning at Mom's I looked out the window and this parade of turkeys started marching across the drive. Jill counted 20 of them.

I guess since it's the day after Thanksgiving they were feeling pretty safe!!

'Nuf Said!

The Fest 2011

As is our annual tradition, we went to The Festival of Trees last night that benefits Hiawatha Homes.

It was mostly white lights but with lots of different themes.

There was a brass quartet playing music that was very pleasant to listen to. It was everything Christmas and serves to kick off our Season.

We went to the new Red Lobster for supper afterwards. While the outside of the building is way cooler than the old one, the inside isn't anywhere near as neat. This was much too refined for us. The food was good but the ambience was only so-so. 

Home At Last

The title makes it sound like I'm glad to be done with vacation. But that's not the case at all! We're always sad to leave Lake Superior behind. But once we headed out of Duluth we found the bad weather had set in. We drove much of the way in conditions like this.

Jill drove the whole way and we made the four hour drive in six hours! WCCO later reported that there were over 440 crashes statewide and we feel very fortunate to not have been part of that total. We saw some vehicles upside down, some just slid off the edge and one of which all that remained was a burned out shell. At Hinckley we were detoured off the Interstate due to a crash ahead. Somebody was looking out for us yesterday! Thank you Dear Lord!

We've been to this particular cabin so many times that we seem to be running out of places to take our group picture. Cher's big bed was this year's choice.

But we also wanted a picture with the (empty) bottle of wine Cher'd brought for her mystery meal. They say women, in particular, choose a wine based on the label and this one seemed appropriate.

What we hung around Duluth for was the Mesabi Miner coming through the Canal. The timing was almost perfect. We saw him on the horizon as we started to pack up at the cabin. So we switched it into high gear and made it down to Duluth with about fifteen minutes to spare.

We ended up seeing only about half as many ships as usual but it was a good week for leisure activities and, except for the drive home, came back refreshed and relaxed. 

Up In The Air

We haven't really been able to count on the shipping schedule this week. It's turned out to be sort of iffy. However, this guy seemed to be pretty much on time. He went by here about an hour ahead of when he's due into Duluth and that's about how long it takes them to get from here to there.

But the ship schedule isn't all that's up in the air. There's a Christmas light display at the Canal that doesn't officially start until tomorrow night. Musta been a test run last night because it was lit and we had just started walking through when they turned it off.

Now we're trying to decide if we want to hang around to go see it tomorrow eve. We'd loooove to stay here one more night but the cabin's not open. Darn! Not too sure we want to be traveling after dark in possible snow up here. I'm voting no but I'm meeting resistance from the other girls. Let's see who wins out!

Some Things That Happen In Duluth...

...should probably stay in Duluth! I seem to have developed a condition (Hint: the vacation bins must have been too heavy) for which sitting in the tub was recommended.

Then I promptly got out and sat on my reading glasses!

While all this was going on Cher was doing a test run on some 79 cent nail polish. I'm sure the waitress at Clyde Ironworks thought nothing of it! ;)

Our ship that was scheduled early in the day kept getting put off but finally did arrive about 6:30. I wanted to get his horn on the video part of my camera but he tooted it way earlier than expected so I decided to be happy just watching all 1013 feet of him pass by. This is about the best ship picture from the day. It's the tugboat down at the Canal all decked out for Christmas.

The shoreline by the Canal is quite intriguing at night but it was coooooold standing out waiting for the Tragurtha.

Not A Shipwatchers Dream...Yet

After sometimes seeing up in the 30-somethings of ships other years we're feeling like eleven so far is a bit of a disappointment!  One did go out this morning and another is due in early afternoon.

The schedule is favorable to boost our totals a little more by Saturday!

We've Got Snow, Yes We Do!

We've got snow, how 'bout you? There was snowing going on last night during our Trivial Pursuit game. In fact, there seemed to be enough in the air that we could no longer see the ship on the horizon that we'd spotted going into Duluth. This morning some remains and rightfully so. It's only 20 degrees!

The morning's sunrise over the "mountains" of Wisconsin was colorful for only a short bit.

It's my turn to cook today and I promise, we won't go hungry. I always guarantee quantity but not necessarily quality!

Bad Blog Post

I can't seem to master either my sisters computer or Blogger today so this may be my only post from our North Shore getaway. So far our ship sighting has been a bit of a dud. We're only seeing them either at anchor, way after dark or on their way out of sight! Later in the week we may be able to catch a couple coming through the Canal.

 We had supper at The Lighthouse At Emily's in Knife River last night and had great food and service. Interesting drinks too...North Shore Bulldog, Three Sisters Cosmo, Foghorn.

 Earlier in the afternoon, this big ominous cloud came overhead and rumbling we thought was a truck on the highway proved to be thunder followed by little chunks of snow.

  This picture is dedicated to Natalie and Harvey since they'll know right where it's taken. I understand they're both mad that us old ladies are up here without them! But pictures of the Greats are scattered throughout our cabin thanks to Grandma Cher.

This morning was an early morning for some of us. It's a very cozy setting for just hunkering down with a good book or a craft or a computer!

Up here it appears that all the vehicles have been driving offroad. They're totally filthy! I hope Jill's truck doesn't look this bad when we come back.

This is one of the ships that almost snuck by us. It had been taken off the schedule so we weren't watching for it. All of us were busy with other stuff so didn't notice it until it was way by.

I'm blaming these pictures and their story being all out of order on Blogger and not on my thought process!

Let Them Eat Cake

We had a little shower on Saturday for the newest member of our family, Maya Jayne. Jill baked the "cake" and I made some shoes. (I probably shouldn't call them booties because of what that word has evolved to mean. Hee! Hee!)

For the most part it was a very lively bunch but sometimes our parties can turn into a dull affair. I guess that's what happened here! 

 We struggled to find a date that could work for this so it may also have been our Holiday party since to come up with another one in a month when everyone's so busy otherwise might be kinda tough. So welcome to our family Baby Maya and Merry Christmas!!

Reverse Trick Or Treating

It didn't work out for Natalie and Harvey to come over on Halloween this year. And we still hadn't found a day to hook up so on Tuesday we made a run up to their house and delivered their treat bags to them. In spite of our disguises I think they knew who we were! Of course, it's always fun to try on someone elses costume.

Before we left, Dora...

 ...and Spiderman made an appearance!

Belated Follow Up

Does anyone even remember our project from a year ago? Today we officially put the last touch on the remodeling of our deck. It used to be all green and mildewed and way bigger than we needed.

So we cut it down not only in size but in expense to replace it. That Trex stuff is not cheap.

 When we first had the deck built our neighbor said we could have a dance on it.

 I suppose we could still dance...just have fewer people.

 It looks a lot better for now. But it's not something we'd ever do again. There are certain features of the Trex material that we weren't very happy with, thus the need for Jon to already do some repair work on it. If nobody looks real close it's a passable job from us amatuer carpentresses.

Bring It On!

It was a beautiful day today so it's hard to imagine that at any point now we could have snow that lasts the whole winter. But we're ready! The wood is stacked and Jill's truck is in the garage.

That last accomplishment doesn't sound like much but we've had so much stuff just thrown in Jill's stall that this was the first time EVER that Luverne has been inside. Oh, did we ever mention that Luverne is Jill's trucks' name? And we've christened the Onstar lady as Shirley.