I need to have less fun

I've been a blonde since the spring. I decided I'd had enough fun for one year or several, so this morning I'm back to dark auburn.

And, since you asked, I'm a natural grey, so I can be whatever I wanna be. I'm a blank canvas.

When in doubt, ask a butcher

I had thought about giving my electric frying pan to the thrift store because we hardly ever, ever used it, and now I'm glad I didn't. I bought a nice chuck roast from our local meat market, and not being very good with beef roasts, I asked our butcher how he would cook it if it were his.

He asked if I had an electric frying pan. I said, "To brown it?" He answered, "Yes, and to do the whole thing." He suggested seasoning it, browning it well on all sides in the frying pan, then roasting it right there.

It worked great. The roast was delicious, it looked great, AND all the drippings were right there in the pan so I could make gravy.

Yin, Yang and - What?

The boys, the blankie - and a guinea pig? Yes, that's Gary the Guinea Pig, snuggling with The Boys.

Gary is a girl, by the way. It's a little hard to explain.

Yin and Yang

Well, sort of, anyway. Two little boys curled up on a nice wool blankie.

Pump Organ

This beauty is now in our front room, where it is the first thing someone sees on entering our home from the front door (or driving by and peeking in through the front windows). It was a gift from Dave and Dottie Voyage, members of our church.It's not playable at present, but they also gave us a book on repairing and restoring antique reed organs, so that is on the project list: Getting this baby back to playing beautiful organ music. Oh, and of course, training someone in the house to play it.

Whited Sepulchre, Part II

Here is what the dining room floor looks like now.

October is Adopt-a-Stray-Cat Month

Meet Briggs. As in Briggs & Stratton. The newest addition to the family. Briggs is probably 6 or 8 months old and extremely sweet. He wasn't in terrible shape, but he did have worms, was abandoned with no collar and was not neutered. He is now a Stahl, has had the family jewels removed and is recuperating and worming his way into the family's hearts.

He's a real sweetie.

Too Hot for School

It would be no big deal in Arizona, Florida or Texas. Here, it IS a big deal. This is October 4th. Northern Iowa, too. Two blocks from the Minnesota state line. And our school closed down early because the heat index was in the dangerous range!

Some years we have snow on the ground by this point.