Cinco de Mayo

Our good friends, the Winkels, are embracing a new culture in Texas and they have re-learned the dance they learned in fifth grade.

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We are finally into Spring!

Last Thursday it was 85 degrees, way above normal. Yesterday it was 78 degrees, but a cold front moved through during early evening and now we are back to seasonal temperatures. But we have green leaves on our trees. It is no nice to see the seasons change. I have added compost/manure to our vegetable garden and tilled it into the ground. We now have fluffy dirt. I will be planting the potatoes and peas next week. and then the rest around Mother's day. If you have not remembered to call Kyle, call him. It is his birthday. Happy Birthday Kyle. It is hard to think that our youngest is already 28 years old. But he tells me everyone still thinks he is 18.

Pizza and the Park

Last Saturday was an even day and that is a signal that our kids and grand kids (still living in Minnesota - sorry Kyle and Tiff) would gather at our house for dinner and memory making. This does not really happen every even Saturday but perhaps every other one. We decided to go to Latuff's Pizzeria in Plymouth. This place has been rated several times as the best pizza in the Twin Cities. They are right. Mmmm Mmmm Good!!!. Brett and his family could not make it because he was in the middle of expanding his garden and putting down compost/manure before planting. The pizza was so good that we did not save any for Brett (we will take you at a latter date). I did not take any pictures while we were devouring the yummy stuff (too busy eating), just at the after activity when we went to the park. No need to tell you who they are or what they were doing. You all know them and can pretty well guess what they are doing. We were only there for about 45 minutes because it was in the low 60's but windy and we weren't dressed properly, short sleeves. Now if a true Texan was up here, they would probably need a parka. Just enjoy their fun.

A new Minnesota Stake

This Easter weekend was stake conference for us. Our general authorities in attendance were Elder Dallen H. Oaks and Pres Thomas S. Monson. Pretty cool, huh? Well, actually their likeness projected on the screen. But they were in attendance, along with 60 other stakes in the upper Midwest. During the Saturday session, Pres. Paynter announces the creation of an eight Minnesota Stake. It is the St. Cloud Stake. Six of the wards from the old Anoka Stake are part of the new stake and we took five wards from the Minneapolis Stake and one from the St Paul Stake. The new wards in Anoka are Medicine Lake, Maple Grove, Cedar Lake, Crystal, Twin Cities 4th Branch (Hmong) and Dinkytown. We lost Alexandria, Buffalo, Elk River, Granite City, Princeton and St. Cloud. None of the ward boundaries changed. So now our stake has two stake centers and two Family History Centers. I wonder which building future stake conferences will be held in!

Explorer hinges

Since last fall we have been dealing with a warn out driver's door hinge in our Explorer. I was just hoping that we could live with it until we got rid of it. We could close the door by slamming it. But it got so bad that sometimes when we slammed it, the door would just bounce back open. It also got so bad that after you got in, most of the time the door would not close tight, but just the first stop. I needed to do something because I was afraid that the door would fall off. So again I turned to the Internet to find out the procedure. I got the hinge pin at the local auto parts store for $6.50 and after an hour the top hinge was replaced and the door closed easy. Then a week later I replaced the lower hinge pin (also warn) in half the time. I was constantly going to get more tools from the house and shed to fix the first one. I knew what I needed for the second one so therefore only half the time. One more thing I can cross off my list.This is how much it moved.

Quick Draw is here

On Saturday, Mar 28, 2009, Kirstin, Jeff and I, along with Chuck and Jill Johnson took a Basic Handgun Familiarization and Safety Class at Bill’s Gun Shop in Circle pines. There was three hours of lecture and one hour of shooting. Our instructor was very good and covered handling of most hand guns, from double and single action revolvers and magazine loaded guns. Then we got to practice with dummy rounds. And then finally on to the real guns at the range. While we were in class, people were using the range, which was about 35 feet in back of the classroom and through the back wall, vending machines and another thick plexi-glass wall to the range, shooting all kinds of guns. We could hear very little noise from the guns. And then all of a sudden we heard this gynormous boom. We all turned around to face the sound and several more shots went off. I kid you not, the concussion from that Barrett .50 cal sniper rifle pushed the back wall of the classroom inwards about an inch with each shot (each bullet will cost you $5). It looked like the wall had a heart beat. Eventually I think that I would like to try that one.

With a few more instructions, we all donned our hearing protection and headed to the range. The first gun I tried was the .22 cal semi automatic. I had a pretty close pattern (all within about 3 inches). The next one was a .22 cal revolver. The pattern was a bit larger. The next one was a 357 magnum Smith & Wesson long barrel. See below:

That one was a duzzy and shot better than I thought it would (I could handle it and I still had a pretty tight pattern). I just thought it was funny to go from a .22Cal all the way to a 357 magnum. The last one, before the 9mm, was a 357 Magnum 2” barrel. I didn’t like that one very much and neither did Kirstin. The instructor had that one out so that we could experience the kick back on different style guns. Then came two different 9mm and both handled well. I am interested in getting the Ruger SR9 17 + 1, as soon as I can convince Judy that we can still be safe in the house with a locked firearm while still having something to defend our home. With the successive guns, except the 9mm semi automatic, the shot pattern got progressively bigger. And with the 357 magnum 2” barrel Saturday night special, I don’t know if I even hit the target – I didn’t see any new holes being made! I may have been one of the people that put holes in the ceiling. It was hard to control. Watch out because quick draw is back in town.

Success

Well, Lorelei's tonsillectomy went smooth as butter. She is just fine and I didn't need to worry so much, but I did. The nurses said that she was the bravest one there today. She left the hospital and was home a little after 3:00PM today. She is a trooper and I think that she will recover fast. She has already had a couple bowls of Chocolate Ice Cream, Mmm good and several cherry pop cycles at the hospital. She came home with a bag of "doctor stuff" from the hospital - band aid, mask, hair bonnet, actual mask to put her to sleep, arm band, etc. Way to go, Lorelei.