This Is How I Feel Today

Yes, I feel like this crazy little doggie today. I'm kind of surly too. I'm tired. I'm bummed because my friend, Margie invited me to join her on a trip to Laughlin today and returning on Friday but I just couldn't make it work with being at the cabin and the flight to Laughlin leaving at 6:00AM today. Hopefully, we can go another time....I've always wanted to see Laughlin.

I packed up quickly this morning when I heard we were supposed to get snow at the cabin today and snow here in MG tonight. I had good roads coming down but now am beat so will probably hibernate for 2 days.

Shades of Elvis

I think this guy has a real shot at winning American Idol this time. Reminds me of Elvis.
http://s79.photobucket.com/albums/j141/mjsbigblog/Top%2010/?action=view&current=adam-top10.flv
If you can't pull it up by clicking on it, copy and paste the whole thing.

Major Water/Wind Problems

It was a dark and rainy night with winds blowing 40 mph and rain hitting our cabin straight on out of the east. We started hearing drips from the windows/roof about 11:00 and then the fun started. I was setting pots and pans and garbage cans all over the place trying to catch the drips. We had to move all our computer/electronic equipment away from the windows and put towels down to sop up the rain we didn't catch. I guess we finally laid down about 2:30 but it was a fitful sleep because I kept hearing drips so would get up and put another pan under the drip. Bill says we have to caulk the whole outside of the cabin and it's too cold to do that now so I guess whenever we leave we have to put plastic down on top of anything in case it rains and we don't want it to get wet. What a mess!!! Help! The picture above is the North Dakota flag flying straight out with the strong winds we had yesterday and last night.

UPDATE ON WINE: Fruit of the Vine

UPDATE ON WHERE TO FIND THE WINE: Actor and Comedian Dan Aykroyd joined us live in studio this morning to tell us about his new "Disovery Series" wine. The Emmy Award-winning actor, screenwriter, musician, and one of the original cast members on "Saturday Night Live," released his first California wine project into the US market in December 2008. The Minneapolis launch event is March 21st from 1:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. at Haskell's Wine & Spirits in Minnetonka. The events is open to everyone; however, space is limited and expected to fill quickly. Dan Aykroyd will be signing bottles of his Discovery Series wines as well as signed posters for the first 100 customers. For more information about Dan Aykroyd wines, visit www.boissetfamilyestates.com.

While watching KARE11 today, I saw Dan Aykroyd of Blues Brothers fame, Driving Miss Daisy, Saturday Night Live. He has his own winery which he was talking about and since I know there are a few blog buddies out there who like to imbibe in the fruit of the vine, I thought I'd mention it. Here is his website:
http://www.danaykroydwines.com/ I'm not sure which liquor stores would be selling it but thought you might like to try it.

Not Everyone Can Win

Sad to say that my hometown team lost the championship today. The other team was just playing so well and couldn't miss a shot. I'm very proud that they made it to State and hope that we will be seeing them there again next year. :-(

THEY WON!!!

Yes, my hometown team won today so they are in the finals tomorrow. I'm pretty happy for them. I have a bad feeling that they will lose....they are playing the defending champions from last year and they are very good. I'm proud of them that they got this far.

St. Urho's Day Up Nort'

This article was in the local paper.....we missed out on some fun on St. Urho's Day!

St. Urho celebrates spring, saving the local wine crop, grasshopper annihilation

Saints usually evoke benevolent thoughts of Mother Theresa surrounded by destitute children. But every March, Menahga plans a boisterous weekend to celebrate a giant sainted Finn with an even more ginormous grasshopper impaled on a pitchfork.
All hail the festival of St. Urho. His saintness is alleged, in Finnish folklore, to have eradicated a locust of grasshoppers feasting on the country’s sparse grape crop.
Because of the short growing season, Finish grape farmers were also alleged to have injected vodka into the crop to enhance the alcohol content of the wine.

Private “Pissant,” also known as Lee Vry, dances during the changing of the guard ceremony. With a dwindling population, he said he’s recruiting more “Knights of St. Urho” if anyone is interested. Shyness is frowned upon, as public disrobing might be required.

Photo gallery: St. Urho 2009
That folklore pretty much sets the tone of Menahga’s annual tribute to a saint decked out in purple and green. Although St. Urho Day is officially March 16, Menahga schedules the festival on the weekend as close to the grasshopper annihilation as possible.
For his benevolent deeds and saving the careers of the Finnish vineyard workers, Urho was elevated to sainthood, although it’s doubtful he’s one of the Pope’s litany of the holy.
Urho supposedly uttered “Heinäsirkka, heinäsirkka, mene täältä hiiteen” (roughly translated: “Grasshopper, grasshopper, go to Hell! in some languages or “scoot” in others.”) That phrase is inscribed on the plaque under his statue in Menahga.
“You do know this is fictional?” a worried King Urho queried, then regained his composure. “But he is the Pope’s most chosen.”
This year’s royalty, anointed honorary Urho and “Lena,” were twins Leo Tomperi and Lori Elmore, whose claim to royal blood (and tin foil crowns) was that they turned 50 the night before, on Friday the 13th.
At high noon Saturday, they met their court, “high” being the state of mind of the participants, not the sun’s direction.
A troupe of grasshopper groupies bowed to the royalty under the statue of Urho and the changing of the guard began once a green-and-purple clad rag-tag parade wound its way down Highway 71 for the signatory event, waving a Finnish flag and pitchforks.
The changing of the guard is actually the “changing of the underwear,” and the “Knights of St. Urho,” decked out in lavender union suits and wearing clusters of grapes and tiny green shot glasses around their necks, began the ritual “trou dropping” to hoots hollers and wolf whistles.
“We bought white long underwear and dyed it in the washing machine,” explained Private Pissant a.k.a. Lee Vry. “Don’t try it unless you really want to piss off your wife,” he suggested.
Once the ceremonial undressing was over, the crowd moved up the street for the parade, then to Spirit Lake for the bar stool races and hilarity.
In homage to the sainted Finn, Menahga commissioned a carving of Urho in 1982 from a chainsaw artist, using a 2,000-pound block of solid oak. Time and Mother Nature eventually ravaged it.
It’s been replaced with a 12-foot fiberglass replica that is supposed to withstand winters such as this one. There is also a statue in Finland, Minnesota.
Saturday night the Menahga VFW served up the traditional meal of mojakka and flatbread.
“I’m not sure what it is,” said a convenience store clerk. “It’s a cross between stew and soup but it’s really good. It has meat and potatoes in it.”
Now if Minnesotans can convince Urho to tackle the mosquito problem, he’ll really earn his sainted status.

If you can't bring up the pictures, there are a lot of men dressed in purple long johns and also people dressed in green representing the dreaded grasshoppers. You could probably bring up the pictures if you go to http://www.parkrapidsenterprise.com/articles/index.cfm?id=16096&section=homepage and scroll halfway down the page to find the St. Urho article and click on the photo gallery. Pretty funny stuff.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Anyone for a Roadtrip?

ANOTHER UPDATE: Cedar Mountain/Comfrey will play tomorrow around noon and this one is supposed to be televised. I'll be watching.

UPDATE: Comfrey won! It wasn't televised though. Bummer.

Sorry, my memory is failing me. I mentioned on JB's blog that I took a picture of a semi but it was a bus....see below. Anyway, here it is....we thought it was pretty humorous.

Guess what, I think I'll be able to watch my hometown girls basketball team play at 1:00. I can get it up here on channel 15 or 45. Yay! Go Cougars....it used to be Rockets when I was a cheerleader. The colors were green and white also.....things change. Hope they win.

Hometown Basketball Team Makes It To State

Hi, I'm back "Up Nort". The drive up was good....nice and sunny and no ice on the roads. It's a bit colder up here than down south though and still snow around.

I'm excited because on the way up here I was listening to the radio and heard that the Girls Basketball team from my hometown made it to State. The sports are now consolidated with Cedar Mountain High School in Morgan so the name of the team is Cedar Mountain/Comfrey and they are playing tomorrow at 1:00PM at Williams Arena in the 1A division. Of course, when I was going to school there, it was just called Comfrey Public School. I hope they do well....and also hope I can see it on TV. I don't know if I can get it up here. :-(

I sure enjoyed going out with the Issy Gals last night and celebrating Saint JB's birthday and St. Patty's Day. It is always so much fun to get together...we have to do it more often. Hope you are feeling better today, Gerri and those pills help you.

Tis a Great Day to be Irish!

Oh, to be in Ireland. Someday, I will go there.
Here we are trying to do a Riverdance.

Old Irish Blessing

Wishing you always...

Walls for the wind,

A roof for the rain,

And tea beside the fire.

Laughter to cheer you,

Those you love near you,

And all that your heart may desire.

Happy Birthday, Saint JB and Celebrating St. Urho's Day

Happy Birthday, Saint JB. May you have a day filled with all good things! Looking forward to seeing you tomorrow. Yes, yes, I forgot to include the Saint in front of JB's name earlier. Now, that that is taken care of....I feel much better. ;-)

In honor of St. Urho's Day, here is a little info. about a small town up nort' that really celebrates today. Lots of Finns up nort', yah shure, you betcha. Why don't the Swedes have something like that?? Below is a picture of the statue in Menahga where they crown a King and Queen from the area every year.

Menahga, Minnesota
Menahga, honors St. Urho (Pronounced "oorho"), the patron saint of Finland, with a statue recreating his mythical battle with giant grasshoppers. He is reputed to have used his "splendid and loud voice" to chase the grasshoppers out of pre-Ice Age Finland (when the climate was much milder) and save the grape harvest. The Finns love him.
At least, the ones in America do. St. Urho was reportedly invented in the 1950s by a couple of Minnesota Finns as a joke. Today it's taken seriously enough that St. Urho Day (the day before St. Patrick's Day) is officially recognized in all 50 states.
St. Urho was originally supposed to be carved out of a one-ton block of laminated oak in 1975, but a Minneapolis woodcarver took Menahga's money and never delivered. In 1982 Menahga gave the block to Jerry Ward, a traveling chainsaw sculptor, and he finally produced their 12-ft tall St. Urho. Oddly, the statue now standing along Hwy. 71 is a fiberglass replica; the original is stored in a mausoleum in the Menahga cemetery.

One St. Urho statue is not enough. There's another in Finland, MN, along Highway 1. It's an "interpretive" Urho, very much like an arty Peter Toth Indian head, carved by the late Don Osborn in 1982. It was originally planned to be 30 feet tall, but the wood was rotten, so its 18 feet will have to do. Urho has a grasshopper on his hat, no body, and he's poorly positioned facing north. Finland hosts a St. Urho's Day Celebration in mid-March.

UPDATE: Going To The Theatre

UPDATE: Had a nice time at the play....very funny and reminded me of years ago growing up in a small town. We had some very nice church basement ladies at our church. Lots of singing and scandihoovian humor and accents.

I'm looking forward to going to the theatre tonight. Yes, I'm finally going to see Church Basement Ladies, A Second Helping. I didn't see the first play, Church Basement Ladies, so I'm going to enjoy tonight. I may have to make a casserole for dinner before I go....

UPDATE: On a Clear Day/Snowfall

UPDATE: What a difference a day makes. Here is the same shot a day later....too bad it's still so darn cold.

I had to take a picture of the snow falling yesterday. It was coming down so heavy that I couldn't see Cty. Rd. 30. Very pretty if you don't have to drive in it. Now, today we have the strong winds and bitter cold.....life in Minnesota....ain't it grand?

Splish Splash

Just a few old and new pictures of people splishin' and a splashin'....or almost.

UPDATE: Monday, Monday

UPDATE BELOW:

I watched Elvis in Blue Hawaii last night....I'm so glad he made those movies so we can still hear him sing and see him in his prime. I know he didn't like doing it but I gotta say, Thanks, Elvis.

Well, I struggled through the torture of putting on my Strap Perfect Concealer Clip - The Ultimate Bra Strap Solution - and it wasn't a pretty picture. You almost have to be a contortionist to do it. Almost threw out my shoulder. I guess the other option is to go without a bra altogether.....and that isn't a pretty picture either. Life goes on.

UPDATE: Just saw this on Prissy's Blog:

Playtex made U.S. history in May 1987 when TV networks began airing its commercials showing women wearing bras. Prior to this, either torso mannequins were used, or female models donned brassieres on top of their outer clothing.

Wonder what they would think of doing a commercial trying to get the Strap Perfect Concealer Clip on your bra.....and why didn't they show someone doing that on the commercial Prissy was watching. I know why.

I Got Trouble

Life could be worse, right? It's the doldrums talkin'.

Saturday - A Doldrum Kind of Day

Well, I thought I'd put my two cents worth down in my blog today.

Nothing too exciting going on....in fact, I feel a little under the weather (whatever that means).....I just did a web search as to the meaning of this phrase and this is what it says,

"This popular phrase for "ill" dates back to 1827. It is commonly believed that bad weather can make you sick. "Under the weather" is an old sailor phrase. When men were sick, they would rest below deck and thus were literally "under" the weather on deck. Moreover, the deck they were under was likely "the weather deck", meaning the most exposed deck on the ship, usually the foredeck (over the seamen's quarters at the front end of the ship) or the quarterdeck (where the helm was located, high for a good view). Either way, if you needed to be sick, you wouldn't want to "toss your cookies" where the wind could toss them back in your face, nor would anyone with you want you to do so. You'd be firmly told to go "under the weather" to be sick."

While I don't have a deck to get under, I imagine the change in the weather may be causing me to feel a bit under the weather. In other words, I'M SICK AND TIRED OF THIS DARN SNOW AND COLD WEATHER THEY ARE PREDICTING WE WILL BE GETTING!

I was up during the night again....maybe it's the hormones kicking in. Joy, Joy.

I've been cleaning today, scrubbing floors, vacuuming, etc., and that could be another reason to feel under the weather. Also, watched the Gophers get beat by Michigan today and that was a downer.

To help bring me out of the doldrums (that's another phrase that I have no idea where it came from....I'll have to look up doldrum...I don't even know if I spelled it right). Here is the meaning: sluggish; inactive; in low spirits. Yep, that's me....no Sassy Sissy today....more like Sluggish Sissy. Anyway, as I was saying before I got sidetracked with all these idioms or sayings, I went out and bought myself some CAKE to help make me feel better. Ya gotta do what ya gotta do, right? While my cake isn't quite as big as the one in the picture, it's big enough. And, I'm older than 28....closer in age to Estelle Getty - may she rest in peace (the little old lady in the front on the cake).

I do hope your day is going better than mine and I haven't put you "in the doldrums". I think I'm giving my age away when I come up with all these weird sayings....another reason to feel crappy.

I saw this on Prissy's blog today under Useless Knowledge but I found it to be very interesting:

The people we call Pennsylvania Dutch originally came from Germany - not Holland. "Dutch" comes from the word Deutsch, meaning German.

Life At The Lake

Life has been pretty slooowww here at the lake so I've put together a little video about it. Will spring ever come???

A Nice Weekend

The Birthday Couple

We had a nice weekend....Friday night, we took our neighbor couple out for dinner for their birthdays which were Thursday and Friday. We went to the restaurant across the lake. I invited another couple to join us also since we don't get together very much in the dead of winter. It was a delightful evening.



On Saturday night, we went in to the local theater to see, "Gran Torino" which I've been wanting to see for a long time. Well, it is finally here in town. I enjoyed it very much and thought Eastwood did a superb job of acting (I could have done without some of the language in the film though). The ending was totally a shock to me. Very good evening.



I enjoyed Tom Selleck's movie, Jesse Stone - Thin Ice, last night. He still has it for an older guy as far as I'm concerned. I watched the Timberwolves for the 1st couple of quarters and as they were getting beat again, I switched to Tom which was much more enjoyable.



Overall, an action packed weekend up nort'. ;-) I hope you all enjoyed your weekend also.

Tom Selleck as Jesse Stone

I was browsing the TV Guide to see what I could watch tonight up nort' and was very happy to see that Tom Selleck will be on tonight at 8:00. (It doesn't take much to excite me). He has been in previous Jesse Stone movies based on Robert B. Parker novels where he plays a police chief in MA. Of course, I remember him from his TV show, Magnum, P.I. where I became a fan. Something about his dimples when he smiles.



I particularly like the music by composer, Jeff Beal that accompanies the movie.....very haunting. I do not know the name of the theme song and could not find it online. :-( If anyone knows what it is called, let me know.



Anyway, I needed some excitement in my life today and I think this is worth waiting for tonight on WCCO.....Jesse Stone - Thin Ice.