Minnesota State Fair bound!

Fun-seekers Bev and Benita

It's never too late to strike an item off your bucket list.
Beverly has never attended the Great Minnesota Get-together, The State Fair. After a 93 year wait, on Monday she'll motor on over to St. Paul in a carload of girls, (Jill, Marcia and Benita) for Senior Day at the fair. There will be no Tilt-a-Whirls, we're told, but they're already planning on gorging themselves.
For her part, Benita has been to the State Fair many times, but prefers the Renaissance Festival. (No Jill, forget that. Sheesh. The Renaissance is definitely not on Mom's bucket list, we're sure. ... although the popovers with melted honey butter are unforgettable.)

Benita teased the rookie: "Hey Beverly, what's the difference between a Pronto Pup and a Corn Dog?"
???
The excitement builds.
If you want to get into the mood, click on this little video we made of our 2008 visit to the Fair.

Every mother's dream. . .

The motorcycle is bigger than it looks. Wayne is 6'5".

As the perfect summer day faded over the opening round of the Renaissance Festival, Jennifer, and her pal, Wayne, headed from there to her parent's house to chat before their night ride home to Northfield.
We think it is important to have a large motorcycle parked prominently in your driveway from time to time, just to put the neighbors on notice that we might be a bit wilder and crazier than they think.
The short visit on the screen porch gave us a chance to meet and get to know Wayne, a very charming, interesting and refined gentleman. . .  in jeans and leather. Wayne moved to Northfield about the time Jennifer got her job in the grocery and that's where they met. They've been buds since.
But Jennifer had to go to work in the morning, so our visit was kept short. Pity. Shortly after they rumbled through the neighborhood, heading south, the empty porch faced an amazing fireworks display that went on for half an hour. The Mdewakanton Sioux were having a Pow Wow, making a fitting finale to a gorgeous day.

Happy Trails, Luke and Emily!

Rico, a four-year-old gelding; Tequila, the mare in the rear.

Rico's sire. . . didn't catch
the name, but Katie says he's
friendly and she's not used to horses.

It's Luke's birthday today and Emily, a best friend, is invited to the party. Luke's Mom owns a stable of three horses, so they were trailered to her Eden Prairie home today as the main attraction at Luke's celebration. Understandably, the horses created a bit of a stir in the suburban neighborhood. Kathleen dropped Emily off amongst the onlookers, and took this shot before leaving. No miniature rental ponies for Luke, no sir. Yes, the kids will wear boots and helmets, Cindy promised.

Smooth. . .

We worked the swings hard this morning at Huber Park, Emily noting that Grandpa's swing squealed a lot louder than hers did. She thoughtfully allowed that that was probably because Grandpa is heavier than she is.
"It sounds like the swings are crying," she observed.
We made friends with Kailey from Austin, visiting her Aunt in Shakopee. Kailey pointed out that Emily's Grandpa had silver in his mouth. She quickly added that she knew why that was and that she didn't have any cavities.
Morning appetites whetted, first thing Emmy Kay asked for was a SMOOTHIE! We proudly complied as she requested carrots and that green stuff to go along with the blueberries and strawberries. It's just Grandpa and Emily today. Grandma is at the vet's office with Birdie again, so we don't have enough hands for Go Fish just yet.
There's always the possibility of an Afternoon Tea, of course.

Mr. Duck and Timothy Turtle got naps today. Grandpa too. Not Emily.

Will they meet at the corner?

This joint is as tight as a tick.
(Whatever does that mean?)

We don't usually stop for garage sales, but this one seemed different. Sure enough, the dreams of a nice young couple to have a picture framing business in their basement somehow went belly up. And, as is the way of the free market, their abject loss was our gain. Cheerio! We crammed their dashed dreams into the hatchback, paid a pittance, and sped off.

Chop saw, clamps, pin nailer, Gorilla glue,
Nothing to it, right? 

That was a few years ago. The raw framing material has been stored flat in the garage, piled carefully so as not to warp. A few of the boards have been pulled out for an experiment or project here and there, but today the first big-time picture-framing challenge was presented to the would-be picture framer. The assignment? Put a 3 foot by 4 foot border around Cousin Larry's canvas that is suitable to the subject and doesn't look like it was lashed up by some garage rookie.
Carolyn used to frame Larry's work, but doesn't do it any more. She explained that quitting was cheaper than the cost of a divorce.
So our new painting was frameless and now we've got a job.
Kathleen will pick a color. Stan will miter the corners and insert the stretched canvas. You'll be the judge.

Our visitors from Red Wing

Stan, Beverly, Carolyn, Larry at Mom's Place.

Mom was very pleased to see Larry and Carolyn today. Larry is Mom's nephew, a 77-year-old artist from Red Wing. Mom fondly recalled hosting the young couple years ago in Alexandria, when they visited their Uncle Erling and Aunt Beverly. Larry's mother is our late Aunt Agnes, Dad's sister.
Larry and Carolyn were on a mission to Shakopee today, to deliver a 36x48 inch landscape that wouldn't fit into Stan's car. Stan and Kathleen had a nice lunch with them, before driving two cars across the river to visit Mom in Bloomington. The Bloomington Ferry Bridge has been a trial since its reduction to two lanes last week. For some reason, it has been easier to go north than to go south at midday. Accordingly, we took the long way home through Burnsville, after bidding Larry and Carolyn goodbye in Bloomington.
Today's delivery wasn't the first Veeder work we have acquired. The first was produced when Stan was only nine. Aunt Agnes boasted to her brother in her North Dakota ranch kitchen that her 20-year-old Larry, home from Art School in far-away Minneapolis, was an amazing portrait artist. To prove her point, she put Stan on a stool and told Larry to get to work. (See the result on the right.)
Today Larry laughed about how his mother worried about him in the Big City, studying amongst strangers at the Institute of Art, blocks away from dangerous Nicollet Avenue. Larry survived and went on to become a successful commercial and landscape artist, raising a family in picturesque Red Wing on the proceeds of his labor. Their two daughters are now creatives themselves: one's a chocolatier, the other has a gallery in Winona.
Larry made many artist friends at the Institute. Phil, a confirmed bachelor, lived for a time with newlyweds Carolyn and Larry. He now lives near Mom's place by Southdale and so they took the opportunity to visit with him today as well.

Anybody have a copy?

An old friend just emailed that she saw a chapter on Erling Rolfsrud in this book. She kindly notified us, wondering if we'd seen it. We haven't. Has anybody got this book, "The Best of The Norwegian Heritage?" We have an encyclopedia of "The Best of Ole and Lena," but, sadly, that's the extent of our library of our Scandinavian legacy.

Here's Sara's note:
Stan
I saw this and when I was thumbing through saw that there's a chapter on your Dad. You probably have this but just in case. . .
Sara

Kathy's walleye

Stan's classmate Kathy Faust landed this lunker, a 6 1/2 pound, 26.5 inch walleye. Stan played clarinet with her in the eighth grade band and sees her occasionally at the Wallweeds get-together of old Alexandria Cardinals held monthly in Maple Grove. Kathy and her husband are headed back to Canada for more fishing.

Thinking of you. . .

Beverly and Erling in 1971

Aunt Dorothy showing Mom, Dad and Uncle Ralph
a photo album in 1979 at a picnic in Elkton, So. Dak.

There's nothing sweeter than a traditional hand-written note delivered by a postman. One arrived in our mailbox from Denver yesterday from Evi and Dave, Mom's nephew, our cousins. In a nice script, Evi got us up to date and enclosed some old snapshots she thought Mom might be interested in seeing. We haven't heard from these two in quite some time, so it was special getting an old-fashioned greeting this way.
Thanks for your note, Evi, Mom will enjoy the pictures.

Mom's grandchildren:  Zach, Shana and Steve. They're all grown up now.