Welcome Russia, Part 2

I checked my stats this morning, and hits from Russia are suddenly more than double what I get from any other country (including the previous leader, the United States). 291 page views from Russia yesterday, and 145 from the US. Not kidding.

I love this town!

Our Community Kitchen serves breakfast twice a week. This is a short walk (three blocks) from our home, and a great place to enjoy hearty fare and community. Breakfast is $3 per person free will donation (or free for those who cannot afford it). It is cooked and served by volunteers, and space is provided by the church. This morning they were also running a cooking school for kids, so it was lively! We had a great time with neighbors and new friends, and the food is fantastic.

The Tyvek® House

This place is on the main drag into our town. It's been in this state for over three years. Husband mentions it every time we drive by. Yes, it's getting old.

Anyway, I wondered how long Tyvek wrap lasts when exposed to the Minnesota elements. So I checked with my friend, Google. From the DuPont (TM) website FAQs:

How long should Tyvek® WB be exposed before it is covered with siding? Tyvek® HomeWrap® and Tyvek® StuccoWrap®, Tyvek® DrainWrap™ and Tyvek® ThermaWrap™ should be covered within 120 days (4 months). Tyvek® CommercialWrap® should be covered within 270 days (9 months).

Husband calls this an "unintentional materials aging study".

Welcome Russian Readers!

Funny thing. I like to check my blog audience stats, you know, the hits, audience, etc. The past few days I'm getting a ton of hits from Russia. This has never happened before! In fact, the Russian audience has been at the bottom of the list for years. Maybe they suddenly all learned English and like to read romance novels? I'm not getting sales from that region, but who knows.

Not sure what this means, but my daily volume has tripled.

Rox and Darlene

Tom McBride has just released a new mystery (actually two mysteries) featuring super sleuths Rox Zander and Darlene Surrey, and it is a hoot. Oh, sure, I could be biased. Darlene's character is shamelessly based on my mother-in-law, Arlene Murray. Click on the cover below and scroll down to sample the first part of this book.

Caution: Slippery Slope Ahead

Who you gonna call?

When there's something strange in the neighborhood?

Poke busters.

Out to Leo's for dinner last night. We tripped our way down Main Street, Stillwater, Minnesota. A lot of paranormal activity in the 'hood. Like, so much that over 100 volunteer PokeMonster busters were out.

Five sat at the table next to us, clearly exhausted from their efforts, in dire need of Leo's special Dad's root beer floats. I asked a fearless, pale young woman if they were the geeks we've heard tell of, but rarely seen in sunlight. She squinted and nodded, "Yep, we're hard core. Fixing' your matrix leak, Ma'am."

Whew. I'm just grateful that they are here. We've had so many strange incidents this past weekend. For starters the river mysteriously rose above flood stage. Then this suspicious character showed up yesterday and terrorized small children (NSFK, see photo). Then an elderly couple from California, wielding a massive RV, didn't read the 13 foot lift bridge clearance sign. They backed traffic way up the hill on both sides as they attempted crossing (photo below).

Knitter's Elbow Recovery

I had to lay off my OCD knitting for a month. Good thing a) the pool is open, and b) my writing muse is back. Anyway, this is my first post-injury gift project -- a simple kid cardigan (size 2T) called "In Threes". I found the buttons in my mother's sewing stash.

The Power to Turn Back Time!

Zoom to young caucasian couple sitting on a couch. Husband looks down and sighs heavily.

Man: “Ugh. Looks like we missed the first half of the twentieth century.”

Woman (dismayed expression): “And there’s no way to restart it . . . “

(Donald Trump with large guitar and tiny hands jumps in from left) —

“With Trump/Pence there is!”

(He strums and sings):

“You see we’ve got the power to turn back time,
So let’s restart the Depression of ’29,
and while we’re at it we’ll eat at soup lines too,
and take away your right to vote (points at woman)
and your vasectomy too (points to man)!
(man puts hand over crotch and laughs heartily)
Hey! That’s the power to turn back time! “

The second in the series features a Japanese American couple with Trump singing about the good old days of being in an internment camp. After that there's Mexican American and African American versions, a gay couple, and a mixed race couple. The possibilities are endless. It's fun to “turn back time” to make America great again.

The original ad.

Make Mars Great Again

This captures it beautifully.

Obama Responds

Heh. He got my email. Since we are being kicked off our healthcare insurance plan (see June 30 post below), his public option idea would work for us. Even better would be Clinton's "Medicare for More", which would lower the age for Medicare as an option to 55.

Synchronized Nightmares

Is this what comes of being married for 34 years?

This morning's action:

Me: Ugh. I hate that dream! I'm retired. It's summer. But there I was, struggling to finish an essay for English class, while I had let History slide. Now I couldn't catch up, and the exam was tomorrow!

Husband (AKA, the one-upper): Dang! I had the same dream, just different. I had signed up for an art class, but somehow I missed the first week. I read my schedule wrong, something I've done repeatedly (in dreams) but this time I was going to correct the situation. I showed up for class, and they were painting with watercolors. The instructor gave us a sheet of paper with a smiley face on it, and we were supposed to brush water over it to "paint". I started in, working rapidly because I was several sheets behind the rest of the class. After a few minutes the teacher ambled over and she said, "Maybe you should go to Walmart and buy the paint-by-number kit. When you've mastered that come back."

True story. You can't make this stuff up.