Pumpkin-Headed Sunday Afternoon

The wife and I are feeling a little punchy this afternoon after busyness the last few days.  The garden produce says, "Stick with it kids, by sticking together."  Smart pumpkin.  

Michael Moore's New Film

Michael Moore's giving his newest film away, allowing fans to download "Slacker Uprising" for free.  Check it out here:  http://slackeruprising.com/.  

Wayward Hayward Turkeys

Brother Joe lives in Hayward, CA, on the east of San Francisco Bay, an urban area that harbors some very un-urban activities, like this flock of turkeys that appeared in his back yard and tried out the deck.  He sent the pictures maybe to show that wildlife still seeks him out.  Don't they look comfy?  

We Like Root Beer

Coming back from the Cities last week, I picked up a six-pack of root beer at an apple stand, all six different.  We tried these two for supper last night, a Boylan's natural type and The Original Bulldog.  The wife liked the latter for the lable and the flavor, a fairly traditional sweet variety.  Mine was less sweet, richer, and very tasty.  Four more to go! 

There's a root beer reviewer publishing here:  http://www.rootbeerreviews.com/brews/brewmain.html

Apple-Picking Time in Madison

I don't know when cotton-picking time in Texas occurs, but here it's about time to latch on to apples and do what you do with this beautiful fruit.  One of my favorites is apple crisp, which we enjoyed yesterday as we celebrated the new Moose house out on Lake Madison.  Walter's not a lot of help in the peeling part of the process, but as always, he's got an eye out for anything amiss.  

Old House Photos

Sue Larsen in town has sent me a pair of photos of our house.  Judging from the size of the trees and other details, I'm guessing they are from the 70's.  The big bush on the corner of the porch is gone, and the tree at the end of the sidewalk is much larger, but the back porch appears to already have been built.  Cool!  Thanks, Sue.  

Putting in Miles

Running the marathon requires putting in some long miles, getting out there on Sunday mornings when your impulse is to stay in bed, sleep a little longer, and hope that rest is a bigger factor in your finishing times than the long run.  But it's the long run that tells the tale.  So, this morning I climbed out early and punched in 2 hours and 46 minutes.  Enough to get me back to my lovely daughter's house, where I spent the last two nights enjoying the company of her and her man.  And the birthday boy, who's got a busy social and work life that seems to keep him occupied much of the time.  But the daughter and I (and her friend) ran the Blubber Run on Saturday morning.  It's a fun "race" where the winners have the best costumes, not the fastest legs.  You can look here for the photos from race day, taken by her man (perhaps I could call him Herman for short), but the photos can't tell the whole story.  Yes, it was a drizzly morning, but that made it good running weather, and it didn't deter Willie Wonka and the Oompa-Loompas, the bunches of grapes, the can of spam, the carrot and rabbit team, Mr. Peanut, or the hundreds of other who happily duded up and put in 5K for a t-shirt and the right to some James Page beer.  The race champion was a flyswatter and the pair of flies he chased through the race.  Herman says I was the 33rd finisher.  Cool!  Next time maybe a costume should be requisite.  

With Love, From JB

Some people care enough to send the very best.  Others, well, they look for opportunities to economize.  Still, it's the thought that counts, right?  

Casey Takes Aim at Adulthood

Today's the boy's birthday, so it's with some delight that I offer up this picture of him a decade ago, a boy with an aim in mind to make something of himself. It all went by pretty quickly. He continues to work toward that goal.

My Daughter's Biting the Couch Again

. . . and other phrases you never thought you'd hear yourself say. Okay. It's September 9, the eve of something stupendous, something earth-shattering. What, you say? Apples are getting ripe? It's time for apple crisp? Well, yes, there's that. There's the apple crisp and the ice cream and coffee and good company and a big sigh of relief that, well, sometimes things go better than you might have hoped. And I don't mean happy fingers or happy toes, but rather a ray of light that warms the skin as a skiff of cloud pulls the curtain on the sun, or the moon.
And, when it's apple-picking time, it's birthday time for the young son. This time a big one. The one that makes him, to some degree or another, his own man. One who can name for himself how much apple crisp he's going to have, or which candidate is his choice for the presidency. Happy birthday, Casey! (Wednesday, not Tuesday).

Moose Herd on the Move

Friends of ours are moving from their beautiful old house, one as old as ours, and we've been helping sift through decades of accumulated stuff, from model cars and trains the kids had to chairs and other furniture from older folks. It's a fast-paced journey through time, and sometimes that's tough, giving up old projects that once were just an afternoon away from being finished, a box of material, an old chair that needs recovered. It's not easy! All those photos waiting for their album time! But I hope they're finding a little less weight on their backs as they shed this old stuff and move into a new life lighter and more nimble.
Other friends are moving in, so we find ourselves on both ends of a move-move. Can anyone say Doan's Pills?

Sunday Morning Jaunt in the Park(s)

What is it that drives some of us to keep up an activity long after we were good at it? Brett Favre keeps on flinging the football, still proving his value. George Foreman fought into his fifties, if I remember right. The football field and the boxing ring, though, have a lot more variants than the clock, and runners can't make excuses--it's just them and the time it takes them to run the race. So it went on Sunday morning as I once again stepped onto the course in Sioux Falls for the Half Marathon. Though I can't cover the distance with the speed I once did, there's still some fun in it, like seeing former students, for example, such as Laura Carrow, once an English major at DSU and a star runner, she's now a writer at the Pipestone County Star. Or Katherine Fisk, also a star DSU runner, still at it. Dr. Sample of Madison also makes his annual appearance at the race. But the big gun with DSU connections is Sample's daughter-in-law, Marie Parker Sample, mother of three who has Olympic aspirations. She's won the women's race several times, and probably did again. She's still peaking, working to extend the curve of her successes. Read about her in the recent Argus Leader article. Last weekend I saw Marie and her husband running Sunday morning as I was leaving town on a long (20-mile) run, and I encountered them again an hour and a half later out at Lake Herman. They too, were putting in some long miles.
The crowds have about worn themselves out cheering by the time I come sauntering in to the finish line, but there's always one fan that's looking for me and ready to drive my tired bones home again. That's a good thing.

Going Chrome?

I'm trying out Google's new Chrome browser. It seems to work well, quick and easy.  It will be interesting to see how it plays in the browser race.  Will Firefox and Internet Explorer begin feeling Chrome on their back bumpers?  One interesting note about the browser is that it's being offered with a comic as a part of its rollout package, a way to explain the need for a fast and stable browser in this era of online applications.