Visit From the South

Friends from Athens, Georgia visiting last week during one of the many Minnesota cold spells this winter!

Stella, Hazel, Halvor, Jack, Daisy, Lyle and Graham

Not everyone can keep their eyes open at this point...it was a late night!

Do you think that 6 kids could all sit still at one time?

The kids went outside on Wednesday night to view the lunar eclipse. I ended up staying out with the girls and Jack while the took turns sledding down the snow piles at the end of our driveway! It was bitterly cold, like -10F at that point in the evening, but they just kept going. They had as much fun as they could in that lack of sledding space and the frigid temps! Ah, the joys of childhood.

Haakon

Haakon sleeping on the couch with Lionel

Such a pretty boy!

Haakon and Graham 12/06

Meet Halvor/Halvar

This lovely feline decided to head North today and live with a bunch of his own kind- Norwegians in St. Cloud. We just got back from Petco in West St. Paul with Halvor/Halvar a 3-year old Norwegian Forest Cat.

He came from Last Hope in Farmington MN- but the foster mom was set up at the West St. Paul Petco today for adpotions. I called her yesterday and we emailed about our interest in him. We've been looking for a Norwegian Forest Cat or Weegie (affectionate nickname for this breed because of their "triangle" shaped face...or is it because "wegi" is in the name Norwegian, now I'm not sure) for quite some time.

When we got him home he was very smelly and had a dingleberry- I found when bathing him. He didn't care to have a bath, yet was still 100X better than our old cat Bob when we had to bathe him after an enema. Then, he let me brush and brush and brush him. He purrrrrrrr-urrrrr-urrrred and rubbed/pushed into his new grooming brush. Now he's cleaning himself right behind me in the chair. He needed to get a ton of mats out and the foster Mom had bathed and brushed his mats when she got him. He'll have several more days of cleaning, brushing and washing to get his coat to that lovely feel and look that Wedgies are know for.


So, now I'm a female in a house with 3 male humans and 2 male felines- Wow!
And, why a Norwegian? I guess because they are so lovely and it's like having something from the old land, though I'm not even one bit Scandanvian!


Oh, and the spelling is still up in the air (as far as I'm concerned). Since he is a Norwegian, Halvor is the proper spelling. However, the name Halvar comes from a book Jack just finished a book called Viki Viking (but the English translation from the German version about a Swedish Viking boy...got that?).


So, Jack's suggestion was Halvar, which is a great name and he gets to take credit for naming him. Chris and I told him that it's so cool to pick out a great name and that will stick with him forever. He'll remember what the day was like, what he liked to do and how he got the name Halvar long after he is grown and Halvar has gone to Valhalla. Well, at least that's what we think, based on our own lives, feeling and memories. Chris' named his cat Fred; as in Fred Flintstone. Well, you can guess our age-range! Yes, The Flintstones, The Brady Bunch and The Six Million Dollar Man have shaped our lives. Graham and Jack's lives are shaped by SpongeBob. So it goes.

Another cold day out there!

Jack is staying home today- both boys are coughing, sneezing and blowing their noses.

I'm trying to ge them to drink some herbal tea to help with their respiratory system, but they have refused so far. I didn't like tea when I was little either. My dad used to make us hot teas with lemon, honey and brandy when we were all stuffed up and sickly. And, I drank it because I knew that it would make me feel better. Ah, the days when you could give your kid alcohol and not ende up in trouble with family protection services!

eBay find!!!!

I have a very famous artise neighbour that has just put on the finale for his major masterpiece. He has used a very symbolic pallet, of mostly green. Very urbane and characteristic of his surroundings.

His work

He has managed to procure the necessary resources to expound on his inital, primative idea. I believe he has reached a new plateau. Time is of the essence~this has taken him days, if not a week to accomplish. Not sure how much higher he should shoot and if he stops at this point, will it sabotage his hopes for taking his work off street? Not sure, but for now I'm supporting him in all his efforts!

OBAMA 08?

Wow, he did really well last night- ya know, if he doesn't make it this year, he is surely a strong contender for the next round in 4 years. My thoughts are that if he doesn't make it and Hillary does (or vice versa) neither one of them will be on the other's cabinet because they'll be up against each other next time. I think Obama's time is now- if he was in her cabinet, wouldn't that make him less likely (or not able) to go up against her next time? Same, for her? That would put him at 2016 before they could do another big run. Anyway, just thinking out loud.

Obama rawked in our precint- not sure how many rooms at South Jr. High had other precincts from our ward, but we had 86 votes in our room and he got 55 of them! Hillary had 26, Kucinich 2, Edwards 1 and 2 non-comitted. Some people came, voted and left. However, the little math room that our neighborhood was in was packed, with standing room only at the end. Chris and I ended up signing up to be delegates for our precinct. We'll go on March 29th for more caucusing and senatoral stuff I believe. We'll be learning lots as we go.

News from the Citites:


Here is what I heard from the Secretary of State Mark Ritschie- over 300,000 people participated (or will have once they count the mail-in/out of country Minnesota ballots). I heard this morning on MPR something like almost 240,000 were DFL alone? The last caucus in 2004 had a grand total of 60,000 people Republican and DFL combined!!! The record Minnesota caucus turnout was during the Vietnam era and it was a whopping 80,000!!! RECORD SHATTERED!!!

Still no spell check- bear with me!!

Peace!

Mr. Drama Grahama

So, I'm upstairs about 1/2 hour ago, ya know, needing some personal time. But as many of you moms know, there is no escape, no personal space and even your bathroom break doesn't deter them from putting on a show for you.

Graham just came up stairs moaning, looking forlorn and holding his head. "I'm sick-I'm having a heart-attack in my brain! I need a popsicle to help it. Jack says that popsicles help when your head hurts." Trying not to laugh too hard, I ask him "Is that so?" He goes into more of his song and dance about how he really, really needs one. Then the pleading clasped hands and big round eyes begging for a popsicle. I let him have one just for the performance sake!

So, just a bit ago (after the orange popsicle) and I'm on the phone taking to my work mate Karen, he comes with hand on head, but a little less dramatic- "My head is still cracking". And, because I'm on the phone and distracted he got the best of me again. He just finished a green one.

Happy National Freedom Day!!!

National Freedom Day is an observance of President Lincoln's signing of the 13th Amedment outlawing slavery (Feb 1, 1865).

Part of freedom in this country is the ability to be part of the electoral process. I encourage all of you to try and be part of the process. Get out and caucaus tomorrow- it's SUPER TUESDAY!

Here in Minnesota we will be caucusing all around the state:
Check out our Secretary of State for more info regarding where to caucus for each party :)

So, we can't all get out and caucaus. I know, you feel intimidated. You feel over-whelmed. You feel like it doesn't even matter anyway.

I say push all your doubts aside and go for it anyway. It's all a learning process and it can't harm anyone if your more informed (or maybe it can, ha-ha).

Here is what I love about this whole process right now. It's fun to watch- who needs soap operas, the so called reality shows when all these presidental hopefuls are duking it out every day and night in the public arena!

Though I'm sure that many of you would think that NPR and it's MPR (Minnesota Public Radio) affilate are bastions of liberal media. But, I challenge you to listen to especially the Midday programs with Kerri Miller and Gary Eichten. Well, I guess her program is part of the morning that they call Midmorning. However, there is balanced, in-depth interviews and reports especially regarding what matters to Minnesota. What both Kerri and Gary do is dedicate whole hours- that's ONE WHOLE HOUR to a subject. Right now Gary is featuring each contender for the Minnesota Senator race. Where can you get one whole hour of info each candidate? Certainly not the Cities television news stations- they have too many fire truck and cop lights they are following. If they do cover politics, they give their political journalists a 3-5 minute round up feature once or twice a week. Other times they just have a few sound bytes here and there, usually the same ones that every other station has. Nothing new, nothing in-depth.

So, my challenge to y'all is to listen for one week to Kerri and Gary and find out for yourselves if you really feel like your being sucked into a liberal, media spin machine? For those of you out of state, but want to keep up on Minnesota politics, you can stream it online or check out your own NPR affiliate for local/state political information. I'd really love hear back about how you felt. I don't even know for sure what others are listening to, but I can tell you that I feel all the Limbuagh's, Hannity and Colmes and Air America shows are just spouting out a lot of spin, jokes and insincere journalism. Just my humble opinion.