The House High Above the Lake

Chris, Ted and I are here in Duluth Minnesota visiting our daughter Becca. I love the carriage house that Becca and her roommate live in. The carriage house sits on highground above the big house. I don't like, however, climbing all the stairs to the living quarters in the carriage house, the view is nice. You can see a tiny view of Lake Superior out one of the windows! Since Becca's house sits so high up, the pigeons love to sit on the roof, so you can hear the little buggers cooing!

Becca and her roommate "A" have done some nice things to jazz up the old house....lots of nice colors and house plants. Hey dad, does this wooden wall hanging look familiar?

We decided to had down to the lake shore walking trail to take some pictures. We stopped at Dunn Brothers first to all get coffee before our little walk. Lake Superior is beautiful at this time of the year.

One of Becca's friend has a mother that loves to quilt. This is the quilt she made for Becca as a gift! How nice is that? I love the color combinations. Becca's little bedroom is so cozy and cute.

We did drive over to West Duluth to find this awesome bakery, but guess what? It was closed...grrrrrrrr. This bakery is really unique because it's storefront windows are all completely covered with blinds and you cannot see in. Isn't that weird. When Becca found this bakery, she knew it wasn't in a good section of town and with the windows all covered up, she honestly thought it was a trick. It said Johnson Bakery above the windows, but she wondered if it was really a drug house! You know, after seeing this place (and it's nothing special to look at), I can see why she thought that. Now Becca learned that it's one of the best bakeries in Duluth....and it was CLOSED. Dang-it! Our next visit to Duluth will be straight to Johnson's Bakery.

I Love Skype....Oh Geez!

I've discovered Skype and I love it!

Last Saturday, we downloaded Skype on our laptops and now I've talked to my parents everynight for the last 7 nights.

Skype is basically a video phone call online so you can talk and see the person online. If you call Skype to Skype, there's no cost....it's free. If you call someone who is not a Skype user, then there will be a minimal cost.

So far I've just been talking to my parents who live in Southern Wisconsin, but soon I hope to get my sister in Florida to sign up as well. My twin sister is also signed up to Skype, so I will soon be connecting with her as well to talk.

The only problem is that you need time to talk with everyone. After working full-time, teaching spinning, and now blogging, I'm running out of day/nighttime hours. Technology can be great, but it can also be overload. Somewhere I will have to find a happy-medium.

Work....spinning.....pizza....skype....blogger....it's been a full day.

What is a Playaway?

Do you know what a "playaway" is? A playaway is a audiobook in a device that looks very much like an MP3 player. Playaways are a new format that replaces cds or cassettes. If you are an audiobook user, just imagine not having to fumble around with multiple cds. When library patrons check out unabridged audiobooks, sometimes they will have to deal with 10-20 cd's. The playaway device will eliminate the problem with switching cd's because the entire audiobook is loaded on this small device. The playaway can fit in your pocket!

So why am I talking about this tonight? Well, I've decided our library will jump on board and start purchasing playaways for our customers. Technology is amazing. Four years ago I thought it was great that our library was converting to audiobooks in cd format...whoo hoo! Within a few years, cd's will be outdated. I've learned to not scowl about the speed of technology, but just embrace it.

A Trip to the Veterinarian

Today was visit the veterinarian day. Woke up early and took kitty into the vet for a couple vaccinations. Then, kitty had to come with me to the library as I waited for Ted to finish up with his dentist appointment. Annabelle behaved herself roaming around the library before we opened at 10 am. I thought kitty did really good today considering she's hasn't been out of the house in over one year. Ted took her home after his dentist appointment.

The rest of my work day was busy....lots of interruptions. I could finally leave work after 5 o'clock and head to the fitness center for a one hour work-out. Worked out on the virtual bike and also did some weight training, and then headed home.

When you don't feel like cooking supper, this is what you do:

I sliced up a french baguette, buttered each slice and topped each piece with freshly grated Parmesan cheese. I put the bread slices in the toaster oven and lightly toasted until the cheese melted and then served the warm bread slices with balsamic vinegar & olive oil dipping sauce with herbs. Made a pot of rice mix and that was our supper for tonight! How easy is that?

Traces Buseum Tour

For the last three years, I've booked the Traces Museum traveling bus tour at our public library. This particular tour focused on German POW's inprisioned in the United States between 1943-46. To learn more about the Traces museum click here.

The traveling tour is called a "Buseum." Traces bought two retired school buses and converted them into a traveling historical tour. Most of their funding comes from grants. Their tours run spring and fall throughout the Midwest. I've always booked them in March when it's still cold, so that's a little bit of a challenge for people like me who like to stay warm. There's no heat in the bus so it tends to be a very COLD exhibit.

The bus is decorated with interesting signs and maps...very catchy and it get's a lot of attention from the public.

Irving is the bus driver and tour guide for Traces. He's very knowledgeable about each tour and his an educational background in history. There is so much that is not taught in public schools about WWII POW's, so that is why Irving wanted to get involved with Traces and teach the public about the historical background to this time period.

Here's a map of all the German POW prisioner camps in the Midwest. Wisconsin happened to have the largest concentration of POW camps, mainly because of the agriculture in our state. Many prisioners were put to work in the farm fields in Southern and Eastern Wisconsin, while other German prisioners worked on water and sewer lines in Northern Wisconsin.

Many German POW's kept busy in Midwest camps by doing handicrafts and artwork. There is so much about these prisioners I never knew until this bus tour. If you want to learn more about the inprisioned life of these German POW's, just go to the Traces website and read all about it.

We actually had some school kids stop by today to see the exhibit.....wow, young kids were actually interested in WWII history. That was amazing.

I hope you have a public library or school nearby you that will book this Midwest tour. It's worth your time to see it.

Can't Stop Daydreaming

Another typical cold winter day, but the sunshine felt good.

After church today, I treated myself to lunch with a new friend from Center Point church. I told my friend "N" that all morning I was coming up with a plan of how I could start biking to church on Sunday mornings....when the weather warms up however. The route I would take is very familiar to me because it's the route that follows Tainter Lake to the south into Menomonie, and we bike that route to stay off the state highways. There's only about three miles I would have to bike on highway D, and then I would connect with 2 different secondary roads, which would lead me right to the front door at Center Point. This route takes me through the little village of Cedar Falls, which is where the dam is located that forms our lake. Remember Pine Point Road family members? That's the road I'm taking about. It's a nice road for cruising along at about 16-18 mph....with a tailwind I could ride even faster. Whoo woo!

I must be suffering from spring fever because I just keep planning different bike routes and local bicycle trips in my head. I catch myself daydreaming about it....geez, the snow hasn't even melted yet.

One of the problems we deal with out here in the countryside, is that the secondary roads stay frozen, icy and snowy until about April. Many of our secondary roads are shady. So in past years I've always waited until the middle to later part of April to ride. Ted will sometimes venture out much earlier than me on his road bike.

A few years ago, a cyclist from Menomonie, came by our house riding his road bike in March. Remember all the potholes in spring? Well, this guy made a bad choice. Right down the road from our house, this male cyclist couldn't avoid a pothole and rode right into it. He did an endo...ouch! I just happen to come upon him because I was just finishing with a run and here this poor guy is trying to fix his bent spoke & rim, not too mention the flat tire. I offered for him to come to the house with me and let him use some of Ted's bike tools to fix up the wheel so he could make it back home (12 miles). I'm sure the guy was hurting, but wouldn't admit it to me. Potholes are a cyclist nightmare.


I thought you might enjoy seeing a picture of our Christmas Cactus....this particular close-up was taken by Mr. Green Thumb man!!!!!