Keeping busy in retirement. . .

Despite highs in the 70s, thin, treacherous ice remains on many larger ponds in the Shakopee area, which Stan hopes to fix.

Root, hoot, toot for the hometeam

Jen and Joe have listed the town house

Take a peek at their work. Click on this link.

The local news

Kathleen lunched with her middle daughter at Southdale today and her walk through Macy's netted Stan a big score. He's been trying to eat more vegetables lately (live like you're 50 until you're 80 is the new mantra) but the canned peas, green beans and carrots are getting a bit boring.
As she strolled through Macy's today, Kathleen was distracted by an enticing demonstration of a new vegetable marinade. She sampled a mouthful, found it toothsome, then stopped at Cub on the way home for Portabella mushrooms, carrots, zuccini, tomatoes, green peppers, red peppers, and asparagus.
Chuckling away in the black spider, the vegetables sparkled in their bright coat of Tuscan marinade. Kathleen is too traditional to serve a man just vegetables, of course, so thin-sliced beef strips accompanied today's experiment in healthy eating.
In return, Stan offered the best neighborhood news he could remember from the day:

• Steve, fresh from his 1700 mile drive from Tucson, dropped by with Stan's bike and Kathleen's forgotten copy of "Still Alice," her half-read book about an Alzheimer's victim that Kathleen ironically didn't remember to bring home from Tucson.
• Our neighbors, the Pundts, are flying back home to Florida after two weeks in Minnesota with the grandson and his parents. Newly-retired Jeff thinks a winter home in San Antonio might be nice, safe from hurricanes, and near his brother's golf course. 
• There are more than 80 golfers planning a round tomorrow at Stonebrooke, possibly a record for this early in the season. 
• Nephew Ford opened practice Monday for his Shakopee varsity tennis team. The family is moving to their new Shakopee house soon.
• Tom's tax business is rolling along, he's got all the clients he wants. Should probably raise his rates if he's getting too busy.
• The Minnesota Twins had a nice surprise phone call for Kathleen today. Turns out her ticket package includes the exhibition game on Friday, so we can extend a streak. Stan and Kathleen attended the very first exhibition game held in the Metrodome back in the 80s, and saw the first home run. Scrappy Pete Rose hit it, probably winning a bet. Friday we'll see the first major league exhibition game ever held at Target Field, but we shan't see the first home run. The Gophers took that away Saturday. We play the St. Louis Cardinals. Last time we saw them was in the seventh game of the World Series in 1987. Welcome back, Cards.
• Stan sanded and finished the third of four beat-up leather chairs, rescued this weekend from the clubhouse dungeon; Kathleen thinks today's chair may be his best one yet. He's starting to get the hang of the sanding procedures. Steve inspected it and thought it quite respectable.
• The neighbor's daughter stopped by the garage today and asked if Stan could consult on a basement bar project that she and her husband want to do in their new house near here. She's very pregnant so Stan suggested her husband make a crib instead, but she is not only pregnant, she's adamant as well. Stan then agreed to consult on a sexy, curvy bar top, but won't lift a hammer. He's retired now, you know.

Fixer Upper? Bleak House?

Our folks bought this house in 1950 along with the 17 acres that surrounded it. They worked on it for thirty years. In the meantime they raised six kids in it. Oh yes. It came with a barn and a chicken coop.

We're done. . .

New life for these battered beauties. Notice how the leather lotion first darkened and then lightened the finish coat. Enthused by the results, we're going for more chairs today. For a before and after, scroll down. By the way, we've had a few bites on the vinyl recliner. . . but it's still in the basement. Act now.

Yes, we can

You can sand leather.

We scuffed theses scratched and abused leather chairs with a palm sander loaded with 220 grit sandpaper. It took some time, but here are the results.
The graffiti and scratches have retreated. Some traces are still evident, but the subtle remaining marks look more like an aged distressed patina than the original wanton, perverse vandalism. Moving on, we'll rub in some generous squirts of a leather lotion to see if we can't coax these beautiful, time-worn ladies to come out and party once again.

Can you sand leather?

A half-dozen leather chairs, beautifully stitched from genuine cowhide, were purchased for the new Stonebrooke clubhouse about six years ago. They looked great, giving the interior a refined, masculine look of comfort. Unfortunately, in just a few years these grand chairs had been scarred and defaced so badly with graffiti and markings they became useless. Kyle and Allie, J.S. and P.L, and many, many others scratched their marks into these chairs, adding senseless slashes and incomplete tic-tac-toe games with fingernails, golf tees and any other tools at hand.
At one time these chairs probably retailed for $500 each.
Saturday Stan bought two of them for $25 each and brought them home with a plan. This is real top grain leather and should be able to stand up to a lot of abuse. Stan intends to do just that with 220 grit sand paper. He'll scuff the entire chair, then try to put it back together with leather cleaner and restorer. There are no tears in the leather and the stitching is still perfect.
Anybody got any advice?

This magnificent recliner. . .

Yours for $75!
Stan did some horse-trading at the clubhouse yesterday and acquired two beat-up classic leather chairs that he thinks he can recondition. So this recliner, unusable because all recliners give Stan a backache, is on the auction block. It was put on Craigslist yesterday, creating a major buzz and much excitement in the e-commerce world. Two interested parties so far. But there is still time. All offers will be considered, so act quickly. Put this gorgeous vinyl companion in front of your tee vee today! Perfect for watching re-runs of Raymond. Rolfsrud@gmail.com