And all she got. . .

Sosie is back from her big adventure in Alexandria, visiting her mother, taking in the sights, and enjoying a slumber party with a college pal. We enjoyed her stories tonight over the walleye pike special ($9.95 for a gorgeous slab of Red Lake's finest) at the Little Six Restaurant on the Mystic Lake campus over there.
You've already read (see below) about the big Kensington Runestone mural on the U-hauls and learned about the gopher getter.
Tonight she displayed her tee shirt, the deadly gopher device (photo at left), and sundry goodies, including a U-Haul press kit, and a U-haul toy and Super Graphics coloring book for Emily.
This was her second walleye dinner on this trip. She enjoyed another one earlier at Fisher's, a classic lakeside resort/restaurant straight out of the 40s, just off 94 in Avon, Minnesota. Ask her about it.
Sosie also did some sleuthing in the Alexandria phone book. Lorlee had assigned Stan the task of contacting the Kluver clan for the upcoming Country School reunion July 31. Stan delegated. Solveig not only scored the numbers, but also left a personal note and invitation for Rodney Karrow, everybody's District 460 heart throb, at his Alexandria jewelry store.
Well done, Sister Sosie. Oh yes. We're sure Mom appreciated your visit as well.
Home to California tomorrow afternoon.

More gas from the North

Wayne Kasich writes from Rainy Lake:

Good morning Stan,
Just catching up on your blog. I was shocked and dismayed to learn that Kathleen would do such a thing. Will I have to lock up my valuables next time I visit? What's it like living with an almost ex-con?
Perhaps she lost at the tables that day and just didn't have the cash for gas.
I still think highly of her and hope she gets a handle on her problem. I just filled up the boat ($145.00) and know how gas prices and the economy in general can affect people...but KATHLEEN!
Hang in there.

A Day of Remembrance

Sunday service

Sosie reports on Today's activities: We went to Shalom for the early service. The Lutherans served Rice Krispie Bars at coffee. Here Mom is looking smug because the Clearwater cook had saved us caramel rolls, which we had with coffee. Soon we will roll our way to the dining room for turkey, mashed potatoes, and corn. Then walleye for me tonight at Fisher's Club, if the tornado stays back.

Eyewitness to History

Our correspondent attended today's ceremony as Shawn Odden, president of the U-Haul Company of Fargo, did the unveiling.

Sosie caught in Alex whirlwind
Stan's Sister Sosie today attended the prestigious unveiling of the much-anticipated Viking Exploration mural that will be seen criss-crossing the nation on U-Haul trailers this summer, touting her hometown as "The Birthplace of America."

Sosie was unable to capture the exact moment of the magical Chamber of Commerce unveiling, due to some technical difficulty with her IPhone, but offered a suitable explanation and alternative photographs. Sosie is in town to visit her mother and prudently uses mother's nap times to savor the excitement that is Alexandria, home of the famed Kensington Runestone, which everyone in town knows was left there by a boatload of Norwegian explorers long before Columbus was even born.
Sosie, a regular pilgrim to the Big Ole hallowed ground, annually harangues clueless summer interns at the Runestone Museum Gift Shoppe, telling them they need to stock license plate holders advertising Alexandria as The True Birthplace of America. Her diligence has paid off: this year the shoppe unveiled a gorgeous license plate holder promoting "The Birthplace of America."

Sosie duly acquired her copy, before heading over to the Alexandria Ace Hardware store to purchase a genuine Minnesota Gopher exhaust pipe attachment designed to gas rodents sleeping in their dens. This lethal device is unavailable in California, where Sosie's vegetable garden has been pillaged by local gophers, undeterred by her puny West Coast defenses.
Dr. Death
Her big brother wiped out an entire colony of striped gophers on Abbey Point a few years ago and recommended this deadly yet humane procedure -- which has earned him both praise and scorn in the neighborhood. She paid $14.95 for hers and believes that, despite its lethality, it will slide by airport security without notice.
Speaking of scorn, success always breeds its detractors, and the Alexandria Chamber of Commerce, with its Runestone acclaim reaping bushels of tourist dollars over the years, has a few. Yesterday Sosie confronted some radical wearing a tee shirt claiming nearby Kensington as  "The Real Home of the Runestone." She bravely sends along this photo.

Here's Ralph Gunderson, who agrees with Lorlee Bartos that Kensington is the true home of the stone. He came into the Runestone Museum yesterday, just after Sosie's photo shoot of the license-plate holder and poster. (After arranging for the photo, the management kept the items in place for marketing purposes.) Ralph, born in Kensington to Eleanor Gunderson, the woman who has kept Kensington history alive, is a busy guy. Today he was in charge of wheeling the replica Viking ship put in place for the hoop-ti-do.

Criminal activity traced to Abbey Point

Her heart leaped to her throat as the black and white Shakopee police car wheeled into our driveway. The mother-of-three thought immediately one of them may be the purpose of the officer's sudden afternoon visit.
It was Kathleen they were looking for, however. She's the latest miscreant to drive away from the Holiday gas station without paying for her tankful. The uniformed officer, in full view of the entire neighborhood, stood on our front porch and explained that Kathleen could simply call down to the gas station and give up her credit card number. She meekly nodded and said she would do just that, without making the observation that the real criminals are the ones who would charge $4 for a gallon of gas.
Despite being reassured that unintended drive-offs are a common occurrence, Kathleen found it necessary to finger her partner.
"I'm sorry, officer," she explained. "Usually it is my husband who does this."

Lunch with the chef at Clearwater

Sosie writes from Alexandria where she is visiting Mom over the weekend:

Here is Mom with Chef Brian in front of the posted menu, which did not disappoint. Appetites were revved up with a cheese soup, then on to salmon with dill sauce, steamed broccoli, twice-baked potatoes, and a selection of dinner rolls. Peach cake coasted us to a close.

Breakfast art with Aunt Sosie

Sosie is on her way to Alexandria this morning, but she shared a few minutes with Emily over breakfast before departing. The note says that Emily is Five and that she hearts Sosie. Sosie already knew this, but it is good to be reminded anyway because at our age we often forget such things. Sosie plans lunch today and a weekend in her hometown where the "Awake The Lakes" festivities are under way. She may renew her annual campaign to get the local chamber of commerce to offer "Birthplace of America" license plate holders.

One to work, one to supervise

The Abbey Point Association Tarmac Repair Committee was hard at it this afternoon, applying a cold patch to some serious blacktop acne. Tom and John are known to have a wide range of skills. This particular area was not widely known of until today. Both are retired air traffic controllers who spent a lifetime getting people safely onto the tarmac, but who knew that their vocational mastery was so thorough?
In the background, above, is our house guest, Stan's Sister Sosie, walking Birdie on a beautiful afternoon, apparently neither were that interested in the day's construction project.

Sosie's here

Sosie arrived shortly after midnight last night. She flew in from California, which is a bit of a miracle, since she was assigned to a seat that didn't exist on her airplane.
We'll enjoy the day, then she heads to Alexandria for a big weekend with our 91-year-old mother.
But first, a birthday gift pedicure for Kathleen, a visit to Hai's Prior Lake garden, pina coladas at Pablos and a visit with her brothers over dinner.

Ready for a garden party

Hai's incredible Prior Lake back yard is filling out beautifully again this year; it's a good thing too. There's going to be a graduation this spring and that means a big party to celebrate it. Hai came to work for Stan almost 17 years ago, when his only child was an infant. Like the garden, he's been nurtured into an incredible, beautiful young man. Congratulations to Hai and Thuy -- and Andrew.
Readers may remember what the garden looked like last year:

Readers will also remember our all-time favorite photo of the graduate, taken by his father in the jungles of Vietnam in 2001 while introducing the young American to his roots.

A birthday hug from Tony O.

On a perfect night for outdoor baseball, we watched the Minnesota Twins mount an emotional comeback performance before allowing a heartbreaking extra-inning loss to the Seattle Mariners, 8 - 7. Our favorite, the elder Jim Thome, in his first night off the disabled list, continued his climb toward 600 homers by hitting two more: No. 592 was particularly noteworthy, it soared 465 feet past us and out the main gate.
We didn't get to the statue of the late Harmon Killebrew for a memorial photo, but we did greet one of his teammates, Twins icon Tony Oliva, who favored us with a picture and a hug for Kathleen's birthday today.

We'll join Twins struggle tonight

Stan and Kathleen head to Target Field this evening to see the troubled Twins take on the Seattle Mariners in what is being billed as a "pitchers' duel." (Oh joy.) Carl Pavano, (above) our inconsistent ace, will take the mound against Jason Vargas, their "untouchable" lefty. Could be a tough night. It was 70 out today, game time is 7:10, it's been damp, and if the bats are cold, it could be a difficult evening for a few Twins fans.
Highlight will be the return of our disabled favorite, Jim Thome, a venerated gentleman still in pursuit of 600 career homers. It would be nice to get the Humpty-Dumpty Twins put back together again to see if we can reboot the franchise. Maybe this is a first step. We'll see.
We also hope to get a photo of Kathleen beside the bronze Killebrew statue. If we do, you'll see it here, but you knew that, of course.

No Last Supper yet, we're still here

The snowbirds have returned to Minnesota. Stan's family gathered yesterday in Blaine, dodging rain and tornadoes, for a lovely evening at his sister and brother-in-law's lovely home. Iowans Becky and Al continue on to Alexandria today, bearing cake and greetings from all, for Mom's 91st birthday.

There are five siblings in the photo above, Sister Sosie is in California but will be here later this week. Our gracious hosts offered a magnificent spread (including Linda's famous meat balls) with host Ron (photo left) closing the evening with an impression of Bob Dylan singing Like a Rolling Stone.

The Neighbor's Speech

Our neighbor had half his cancerous tongue removed and replaced with wrist muscle just a month or so ago at the Mayo in Arizona. He's back in Minnesota with his wife now and this morning he greeted Stan with a big grin in the cul-de-sac on the way to getting the Sunday paper.

His story was more incredible than anything we might read about today.
"Parts is parts," he laughed, as he showed off the scars from the harvesting done on his wrist and thigh necessary to assemble a new muscle in his mouth. "They made a clean cut, got it all, so there was no radiation needed."
He had to learn to swallow and speak again. He's doing very well, amazingly well, having most difficulty with the "Gee" sound, but he was a delight to see again and he just kept talking while Stan stood in amazement. Biggest complaint right now seems to be that the damage sustained in his left arm with all the new arrangements is interfering with his ability to hit a long golf ball. He wonders if they have installed the senior tees at Stonebrooke yet.
He's looks to be in great shape, still wearing Arizonaesque shorts and flip-flops. He did lose a few pounds. "Don't get a feeding tube," he advised. "You can't get enough to eat and you have to sleep sitting up."
Grateful to see this good man in such great shape, we turned home with the paper to share our own wonderful news.

Birthday Boy Runs 10 K

Our nephew Adam celebrated his birthday today by running a 10K with Blake at 8 a.m. this morning. The rest of his clan went along to support the guys...in the rain. 

Happy Birthday, Pops!

Hoi's Mom, Stan's Mom, Kathleen's Mom

We recently noted the passing of our grandson Maxwell's other grandmother, Mrs. Tram Tong. She died May 8 in South Carolina. She was 84. Here she is in this 1995 photo, along with Maxwell's great grandmothers -- Beverly Rolfsrud and the late Florence Neilson, as well as Max's other grandmother, Kathleen. Max is now 16.

Tram Nhu Tong

Mrs. Tram Tong, 84, of York, South Carolina, died peacefully at White Oak Manor in York, SC on May 8, 2011. She was born on July 6, 1926 in Hue City, Viet Nam and will always be remembered as a loving wife, mother, grandmother and friend to all that knew her. Mrs. Tong was preceded in death by her husband of over 45 years Ham Ho Tong.

She is survived by 7 sons, Huan Tong and his wife Mieng; Dien Tong and his wife Diep; Minh Tong and his wife ToNga; Hien Tong and his wife Thanh; Hoai Tong and his wife Miziel; Hoan Tong and his wife Lynn and Hoi Tong; daughter Kim Anh Tong and her husband Jon Cohen. Mrs. Tram Tong was also a loving grandmother of 22 grandchildren; Uyen Uyen, Danny, Lisa, David, Michael, Diana, Katie, Meagan, Celina, Michelle, Brian, Jade, Sienna, Ashley, Jennifer, Ryan, Bryan, Christopher, Vanessa, Grace, Grant and Maxwell.

A Funeral Service will be held at 1:00 pm on Wednesday, May 11, 2011 at McEwen Funeral Service Pineville Chapel, 10500 Park Rd., Charlotte, NC 28210. Burial will follow at Sharon Memorial Park Cemetery, 5400 Monroe Rd., Charlotte, NC 28212. The family will receive friends from 6:00 to 8:00 pm on Tuesday, May 10, 2011 at McEwen Funeral Service Pineville Chapel. Online condolences can be made at www.mcewenpinevillechapel.com

At last, an apology. . .

All is forgiven.

Then we met the Morton's girl. . .

Yes, there is sunshine on a cloudy day.

Way to Go, Coach Ford!

Our nephew's tennis team is making news! This from tomorrow's Shakopee Valley News:

Win nets second place

Tennis team seeded third

BY Todd Abeln

tabeln@swpub.com

Best season ever. . .

The Shakopee boys tennis team completed its best season ever and is looking forward to making a long run in the playoffs.

Shakopee defeated Northfield 5-2 on Monday at Shakopee High School to complete the very successful regular season.

With the win against Northfield, Shakopee improved to 15-3 on the season and 6-1 in the Missota Conference, which puts it in second place behind Red Wing.

That impressive record also helped the Sabers snag the No. 3 seed in the Class 3A, Section 2 North subsection playoffs. The No. 3 seed is one of the highest seeds in school history.

With that seed, Shakopee will host the sixth-seeded Chaska Hawks on Tuesday at 4 p.m.

If they should get by Chaska, Shakopee would play either seventh seed Chanhassen or second seed Minnetonka on Thursday, May 26.

[Update: Ford's team beat Chaska Tuesday night -- see his wife's comment below!]

Eden Prairie received the No. 1 seed.

“Best record ever and highest seed that I know of,” head coach Ford Rolfsrud said.

In the win against the Raiders, Shakopee won three of the four singles matches.

Freshman Ulrick Boyogueno won 6-2, 7-6 (7-3) at No. 1 singles. Seventh-grader won 6-2, 6-4 at No. 3 singles and another seventh-grader, Steffon Mitchell, won 6-1, 0-6, 7-5 at No. 4 singles.

In doubles play, Shakopee won at No. 2 and 3.

Senior Erich Pistulka and junior Eric Hammerschmidt won 6-2, 6-1 at No. 2 while Justin Hammerschmidt and Logan Noess won 6-1, 6-4 at No. 3.

Last Friday, the Sabers wrapped up their non-conference schedule with an impressive 4-3 win against Orono. That win probably gave Shakopee the No. 3 in the section. Orono is seeded fourth.

The Sabers swept the doubles competition and got a big 6-4, 7-5 win from Mitchell at No. 4 singles to earn the team victory.

Mark Holcombe and Jayke Kubler won 5-7, 6-2, 6-3 at No. 1 doubles.

Pistulka and Hammerschmidt also need three sets to win at No. 2 doubles. They won 6-4, 6-7 (7-5), 6-1.

At No. 3 doubles, Justin Hammerschmidt and Noess won 6-4, 6-2.

Scamp II

 It's the American Dream on wheels. And the dream keeps getting bigger.
Our neighbors, Tom and Sandy, started out experimenting with a small sport trailer in 2008 to see if they enjoyed the camping trailer experience. They took it around the state and elsewhere, with a dream to visit every state park in Minnesota.
They've had a lot of fun since and so this spring they decided to jump in all the way. They sold their old pal to a gal who lost her Scamp in an accident. Yesterday they brought home their new Element, a bigger and heavier model (they've bumped up the size of their tow vehicle as well). Tomorrow they head out on their two-day shakedown cruise to Sibley Park.
Sandy gave us a quick tour (Tom was golfing) and it is spectacular. It's got everything -- bath, kitchen, bedroom, tv and even a "slide-out" for extra elbow-room at the park.
We wished them many happy miles, then looked up the old gag photo we took in April of 2008 featuring Kathleen's VW giving the Scamp a tow. Here it is.

Each one is correct twice a day

Just for fun, we brought a plastic tub of memorabilia to Mom's place in Alexandria today. We explored treasures from trips taken to Israel and Greece (1968) and Norway (1999). Mom had kept itineraries and seat assignments, maps and scraps. We looked at her notes and class lists from when she taught Bible school in 1968, reading the names and the grades each had earned. We examined her gold monogrammed diploma from Concordia College (1944). We read a history of her achievements that ran in the Echo on Jan. 3, 1973 and we pinned on ribbons that she had won shusshing down Andes Mountain. We looked at a collection of "popular music" from the mid-1800s that had been gathered and bound by her grandfather Ralph Brown. She had a trove of charms and jewelry in her squirrel box, as well as this fine collection of watches that stopped running, along with a Nov. 29, 1996 receipt from Target proving that she had paid $13.83 for one of them. Mom's never really been a pack rat, but we've all kept stuff we can't throw out and that's probably a good thing  -- good for something fun to do on a Sunday afternoon.

Happy Birthday Breck and Shana!

What's Briggsy doin?

Haven't heard much from our niece, Briggs, since she announced her engagement to Lynn a while back. So what have they been doing lately in the nation's capital? Briggs recently got a job as a college recruiter. We asked her for some more details. Here goes:

Hi Stan!

Yes, I started working at Capitol College as a Graduate Recruiter in April. We're charged with increasing graduate enrollment by 100% by May, 2012. I like the job because every day is a bit different and I get to travel. For example, I just returned from Virginia Beach and will be going to South Carolina and Wisconsin in August.

Lynn is doing great! NASA suits him well. Tomorrow, I have a recruiting event at his campus, so he's going to help me navigate the labrynth that is NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Outside of work, we take advantage of our close proximity to DC and are learning a lot about....well, a lot of things!

I'm going to Vermont to see some friends next weekend. Over Memorial Day weekend, Lynn and I are going to the Appalachian Mountains in West Virginia. All in all, we're happy and busy!

I hope you and your bride are enjoying the spring weather!

Briggs

Coming to a U-Haul near you. . .

The Birthplace of  America (Our hometown of Alexandria, of course) will be promoted this summer with this super graphic on U-Haul trucks and trailers. Locals say that the recent History Channel story and subsequent reporting has kindled new interest in the Kensington Runestone and the theory that a bunch of Norwegians discovered America long before Columbus did. Learn more at Uhaul.com
Last night, amidst great fanfare, the Alexandria Chamber of Commerce revealed the artwork that will adorn trailers and trucks criss-crossing the nation.
This morning, Stan received a breathless note from his Alexandria correspondent, Tom Obert, who attended the meeting:

Apparently this will be on over 2,000 trucks and trailers nationwide - great free advertising. The Runestone museum has been setting attendance records anyway with the History Channel program and a subsequent DVD on the Runestone. It is becoming a destination unto itself - and when the Maritime Gardens are in . . .
 And of course all this interest has led to more studies on the authenticity of the stone - and, so far, they all think it is authentic! So, I had to ask at the meeting "When are we going to ask our elected representatives  for a national holiday to replace Columbus Day?"

------------------

With this all breaking news and excitement, many Runestone fans, including Sosie, have booked immediate flights to the homeland. The Maritime Gardens, a sort of park by the boat museum, are being planted as we speak. Sosie will be in town May 26 to inspect.
Who knows? You may be stuck behind one of these trailers in a construction zone this summer. If so, please forward a photo from your iphone. 

Lost some posts

Not sure what happened to Blogger this morning. We lost a couple of posts, Wednesday and Thursday just disappeared. Usually this free service is pretty reliable. Oh well.

Solveig's Men-at-Work on Mother's Day

Look Ma, No Hands
Got these iphone pictures from Sosie, who tends a lush canyon garden in California. Retaining walls are a big item when you're taming a canyon, something she, her husband Bill, and son, Zach, have been doing for some time now. Never to be caught with the wrong tool, the men relentlessly scour area shops and stores seeking just the right device for every job. They scored again with this patented harness arrangement that cleverly allows the pair to heft a railroad tie directly up the canyon path while leaving both hands free. . . perhaps for text messaging the boss en route???

Take a break, fellas, and smile. You've made Mother's Day a very happy one.

Hunter strikes out 11 of 14 batters - - - in loss!

Stan's grand nephew, 10-year-old Hunter Underwood, pitched 5-2/3rd innings of a 6-inning baseball game in Des Moines last night. He struck out 11 of 14 batters. He caught a pop fly and tossed one out on a dribbler to first.

He threw 57 pitches. Forty-five were strikes.

But even more amazing is that they still lost the game, 3-2, anyway, -- because the pitcher who threw the first one-third inning allowed three runs, before Hunter relieved him.

Wow! Unbelieveable! Atta boy, Hunter!

Tarmac debut, 2011

Photo by Katie

Warm weather heralded the first tarmac party of the season at 5 p.m. tonight on the Abbey Point cul-de-sac. Attendance was relatively sparse, given the short notice and the many spring-time activities affecting active non-snowbird residents of this brave Minnesota community.
But Joe and Mina (right), who actually attended today's afternoon game, were there to give an unvarnished assessment of the Minnesota Twins' losing effort and also had time to advise fellow tarmackers on the ins and outs of Medicare and Social Security signups, now that more and more Abbey Pointers qualify for that challenge.
In other news, we learned that the Best Buy Geek Squad installed a new television set at Joe and Mina's residence yesterday. Concerned neighbors had witnessed curious traffic in VW bugs and vans converging at their townhouse Tuesday. Tonight, concerned neighbors were told that additional management and technical help had been electronically summoned to the property when the Best Buy Geeks learned that Mina cheerfully served breakfast treats with her hot coffee.
Joe, a former boxer, loves his new Best Buy tv set up. Joe's a cable company's dream, he has to order all the extra channels just so that he can access the only channel that carries real boxing action. Did we mention that Joe's a real boxer? Yes he is. They even named underpants after him.
The Abbey Point crowd eagerly anticipates the arrival of at least a half-dozen snowbirds who spend the winter in warmer climes in Arizona and Florida: upon their arrival, we'll discuss the gaping pothole formed in our tarmac, caused by winter frost heaves in their absence.
Tonight, many attendees were surprised that, in light of recent national news events, and despite the fact that the tarmac event was convened and attended by distinguished retired air traffic controllers, relatively little time was wasted in belittling or joshing the nation's Guardians of the Sky.

He flies. . . and he's smart too

Cousin Arnold Rolfsrud writes from the state of Washington about his grandson, the blue-clad runner centered in the photo above:
Arnold writes: Attached is photographic proof that when my grandson, William Sheeran, runs, he literally flies! He's the one in the blue shirt behind the kid from Interlake HS--he's the tall, skinny, gangly one!!! Notice that both feet are off the ground. He recently turned 17 years old, and has run the mile in 4 minutes and 20 seconds, although his goal is to match his father, who ran the mile in 4 minutes, 10 seconds when he was in high school.

Our daughter Kirsti, William's mother, was also one of top distance runners in the State when she was in high school. As a member of Bellevue High School's track team, William competes in the 800 meter run, the 1600 meter run and the 3200 meter run; he also is on the cross country team during the fall months. 

He's a junior at Bellevue High, where he's a 4.0 GPA student, is on the Student Senate and plays the trumpet in the jazz band. Likely colleges include Georgetown (his father's undergraduate alma mater), Columbia, Dartmouth or Johns Hopkins (a natural fit since he's planning a career in neuroscience). Perhaps most important, he's a really nice guy--you'd never catch him bullying anyone; and he doesn't have a mean bone in his lanky body. 

 His grandfather is obviously very proud of him, although I could never run like he does during any part of my life!!!
Arnold R

Good morning, Hail.

We awoke this morning to hail on the roof . Not golf ball hail, just marble hail. Lord, whatever happened to the concept of a nice, ordinary, warm sunny day? We had one of those once this year. We could sure use another. Today's blessing, we suppose, is that it has been too cold to plant anything, so we avoided any hail damage to tender seedlings.

Midtown Fire Station

This week the President honored a fire station in Midtown Manhattan that lost an entire battalion of firefighters on 911. The station looked familiar to us. Sure enough, we had stopped there in 2005 to pay our respects and made these photos. The men were just returning from a fire call and seemed like a great bunch of guys, one joshing that the fireman pictured above was the best-looking man in the house and therefore the clear choice to have his picture taken with Katie.

Three Moms

Marcy, Shirley and Kathleen were honored today with a Mother's Day brunch at a cafe near 50th and France. Marcy's boyfriend, Ron, brought his mother, Shirley, while Marcelline and her son, Maxwell, were joined by Kathleen. We were saddened to learn on this special day that Maxwell's grandmother died this morning at home in North Carolina. Max's father, Hoi, was there with the family at the time of her death. Our thoughts are with the Tongs.

On the way to the $2 window . . .

Danny and Katie watched the Kentucky Derby at Canterbury Park today along with thousands of other Minnesotans. Big hats adorned many ladies, a derby custom. Our partners placed a Boxed Exacta (ArchArchArch, Dialed In and Midnight Interlude), then Katie got an urge to bet $2 on Animal Kingdom. By then, lines to the betting windows were too long on the lower level, so she took an escalator to the mezzanine mutuals. On her way, Katie passed a busy millinery, selling hats to the Mint Julep ladies, and she fancied a pink and black one. In the excitement of showing off her new hat, Katie almost forgot to bet, but placed it in time to win $26. A nice prize, but not enough to cover the hat.
Oh well, it was a great afternoon, and she can wear the hat again to Mark and Vanessa's June wedding. Ain't she sweet?