Rain, squirrels, pie

It’s a cloudy day in the neighborhood. We had a good weekend in St. Paul, although it rained non-stop from Saturday morning on. And absolutely poured on the way home Sunday afternoon. Then magically stopped south of Mason City, where it was sunny and 20 degrees warmer.

John and Steve got the first coat of mud on the nursery wall. We also got a pile of branches and stumps cleaned up in the alley.

I picked up a couple of bargains at Herbeger’s again. One was this $86 suit jacket for $2.99!

It goes nicely with the fabric I got last week.
We went to church with Lou and had coffee at their house afterwards.

Dylan showed us drawings from the weeklong fashion illustration class he took this summer. His drawings at age 12 look better than some in my graphic arts class 34 years ago.

Anne and Dan and family joined us at John and Erika’s for Sunday dinner.


Anne brought the dessert, two of these:

Here the Great White Hunter in an early morning outing attempts to thin out the population of squirrels living in the huge walnut tree which canopies most of their back yard and from which rains a steady deluge of walnut 'droppings' which turn all things black.






The happy hunter and the...


...deceased.

This from Anne:
I made grape nuts from scratch today. When I told Ellie what I was making, she had a puzzled look on her face and said, “What do you mean you are making them from scratch?” I told her I was going to make our own grape nuts (she has been begging me for them recently). Her reply, “What are you going to make them out of? Wood?”

This from Laurie:
A few months ago, Shannon received a Mr. Potato Head set that includes a potato, an ear of corn, and a carrot. His favorite thing to do with them is get them dressed and make them talk to each other. One of the hats looks like the top of a carrot, and Shannon calls it a "tree." This morning, Shannon starts asking for the tree to put on Mr. Corn, and I point out that Mr. Potato Head is already wearing it. So, Shannon has Mr. Corn nicely asking Mr. Potato Head for a turn with the tree. Once Mr. Corn is wearing the tree, Mr. Corn very politely says thank you.

Another funny thing Shannon does is say excuse me ("ee me") for everyone. So, if Jack burps, Shannon will say, "ee me, Jack." If Sean burps, Shannon will say, "ee me, Papa." He even uses "ee me" if he is attempting to give someone an object.

A cool roll cloud from last week.