Hidden treasure

On Friday I went to get my hair cut at Carly's new salon. I turned down the next street past the salon, and noticed that the parking lot was reserved for "MAHA residents". And so was the next one. So I found a place to park on the street. As I walked back up to the salon, I noticed that on the next street over, there were some interesting houses that all looked very similar. So after my haircut, instead of going straight back to the car, I turned the other way and found myself on a pedestrian street lined with small but beautiful houses, mostly brick, decorated with gingerbread. I was in the Milwaukee Avenue Historic Area, and a sign said there was a home tour on Sunday.
So today Russ and I rode the light rail to Franklin Avenue and then walked over to Milwaukee Avenue. We discovered that this area had been slated for "urban renewal" in the late 60's. The houses were built in the 1880's mainly for low-skilled immigrants. By 1970, most were dilapidated and plans called for them to be razed, but a group of activists managed to save the street. The houses that were structurally sound were jacked up so that basements with all new mechanicals could be constructed, they were gutted and rehabilitated. They also chose to make the narrow street a pedestrian walkway. Most of the seven houses open for the tour are similar on the outside, but each is unique and interesting in its own way. Some have extremely steep stairs with shallow risers and detailed woodwork, one has 4 different levels and no interior doors, one has a back staircase that can be lifted up to make room for a dinner table underneath, and one has had no major restoration at all. Most do not have garages, thus the parking lots I noticed on Friday. The tour has a blog with pictures of each house and comments by the owners.

By the way, the salon is nice. Not as funky as either of the other locations, and nowhere near as much space as the last one. But as Carly said, it is much cleaner.

Fortune cookie of the day:
Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.

Rain, rain, go away

So they were supposed to put in the glass block windows today to solve our problem of water coming in through the window wells. But it rained. All day. So they couldn't do the work AND we got water in the basement. I was watching for it, though, and vacuumed it up with the wet/dry vac as it came in. By the time Russ came home, it had stopped. I'm hoping the rain is pretty much over for the night.

And when the rain let up a little earlier in the evening, I went out to walk Bravo. THAT is when they chose to call to re-schedule the windows. And of course, no one answered the number they left on the machine, because it was after office hours. Not the best evening I've had in a while.

Ducks and geese better scurry

We were taking a tour of the lake in the Hendees' boat on Saturday. There were many many ducks and geese on the lake and the shore, and most of them took off when we went by. It's a nice little lake. Convoluted shoreline, spring-fed, no wake, and when we were there, the water was very clear.

Before we went out on the boat, Russ cast a fishing line off the pier. One cast, one fish! There were no barbs on the hook, and the fish went right back into the lake.

After the boat ride, we had home-made BLTs for lunch. They were SO good. I may have to learn to make them at home. Later in the afternoon, we went by an elk and buffalo ranch, and I got some great pictures. Then we wandered the shops in Princeton and had dinner in Wautoma.
We got back to the cabin just in time for sunset. That's the bench at the end of their dock. After I took the picture, we went back out on the boat and had some wine while the sun went down. I wished I had the camera to capture the moon in the water, and when it was full dark, the stars out there were magnificent.

Sunday morning we spent some time talking politics before we left for home. It was a great weekend.

More photos here.

Fortune cookie of the day:
A small act of charity will go a long way.

Of this and that

I was at the library tonight and just started thinking about having recently read a discussion of whether listening to an audio book counted as reading the book. In my opinion - absolutely. Yes, you can say that many people who listen to books don't really hear all of it as they are distracted by other things. However, the same is true of many people who read by looking at the pages - there are people out there who skim. (I know - it's heresy!) There are people who are more aural than visual, and a good narrator can really make a book come alive. I've "read" several books by listening to them, and I usually feel I got at least as much from them as if I had been turning pages. And if the audio book is narrated by Simon Prebble, I got more. I absolutely love his voice. I like the Bill Bryson audio books, too, because he reads them himself - I think they are funnier in the audio version. I admit I sometimes realize I have drifted off to other thoughts. But the biggest problem I have with audio books (especially CDs) is how to put in the bookmark.

On the way back from the library, I stopped at a light behind one other car. When the light changed, the other driver got started so slowly that the light turned red before I made it all the way across the 4 lane highway. Did I mention it was only ONE other car? And they never did go as fast as the speed limit. Which was 35 mph. Now you are probably asking yourself why I am mentioning such a mundane occurrence. Solely because the car .... was a CORVETTE! I had to ask myself if the driver really deserved such a car.

Fortune cookie of the day:
You will inherit a large sum of money.

Maybe I can use it to buy that Corvette....

Another sunset

I went to the barn tonight. Lark made me walk far, far out into the pasture to get him. He didn't try to avoid me though. I gave him a peppermint, hoping he will remember that he gets treats when I go to get him.

I lunged him in the arena for about 20 minutes. He was pretty good. Karis called while I was in the arena with him, so I held the phone to his ear and let her talk to him. He cocked his ear and listened.

So a short visit, but still a visit. On the way home, the sunset was beautiful.

Fortune cookie of the day:
The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.

On Golden Pond

On Friday, Russ and I were walking down to Bush Lake when we saw the golden light through the trees from the sunset over the pond. So today I went back and tried to capture it. I liked a lot of the photos, but this one really popped out at me. This is the pond where we used to play ball with Beta in the winter, when it was frozen over.



Fortune cookie of the day: You will live a long time, long enough to open many, many fortune cookies.

Recommendations

Today I have two recommendations - a book and a movie.

The book is Blame It On Paris, by Laura Florand. It's the story of an American in Paris, who is not enjoying the city and looking forward to moving on until she meets a cute French waiter. My favorite parts of the book are the culture clashes. It is wonderful to see them from both sides - the beginning and end are in France, but in the middle, the French come to America. I greatly enjoyed this book, and I look forward to the next one.

Laura has a wonderful blog. However be warned - if you are a chocolate lover living in the U.S., many of the posts will make you weep with frustration and plot to spend all your savings on a trip to visit chocolatiers in France until your money runs out. She very cruelly posts lots of pictures and descriptions of chocolate and ice cream that are not available on this side of the pond. And other food as well, but that doesn't affect me since I'm not a foodie. Just a chocoholic.

My other recommendation: Russ and I went to see Stardust last night. It is a terrific fantasy movie based on a Neil Gaiman book. Great people in it - Michelle Pfeiffer is a witch, Claire Danes is a star come down to earth, Peter O'Toole and Rupert Everett are a king and a prince respectively, and the most amazing is Robert de Niro as a sky pirate. So for those of you who have seen the movie AND read the book, tell me - how does the movie compare to the book?

Footnote: I must be in a French phase, because I moved on from Blame It On Paris to Hotel Riviera, by Elizabeth Adler.

Fortune cookie of the day:
Good news will be received in a letter