Melll-tinnngggg

Finally the temperature came above freezing. The snow started to melt, there was an earthy, watery, melty smell in the air and spring fever threatened to set in.

On Sunday afternoon, M&D and J went for a walk, because the best thing to counteract spring fever is to get outdoors.

2008-02-25_Melting_Mpls

Spring fever, n.: a lazy or restless feeling often associated with the onset of spring.

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Picture from Star Tribune, Feb. 20, 2008

Same Minneapolis building goes up in flames twice in six hours

By TIM HARLOW, Star Tribune

February 20, 2008

Minneapolis fire officials are investigating two fires that happened at the same building just a few hours apart.

The first blaze broke out around 3:30 a.m. at a building housing Jo Jo Urban Clothing and the La Princesa Bakery. The brick building at 3345 Nicollet Av. S. also housed a vacant food market. The fire appeared to have started behind the market, said Sean McKenna, spokesman for the Minneapolis Fire Department.

About 6 hours later, fire fighters were back on the scene, McKenna said. A fire had started in the basement of the bakery. The building is heavily damaged and may be a total loss.

McKenna said the first fire did not rekindle, but he was not sure what sparked the second fire.

"It's a mystery," he said.

© 2008 Star Tribune. All rights reserved.

Aguas Calientes

Tragically, the hot water heater is not working. The service person will be coming out tomorrow afternoon. Worse could happen. Did everybody read Paul's blog about the car being stolen?

Mark Twain

Just finished reading Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. It took me a good long time to read this slim volume and I blame my TV-watching habits for that. Instead of climbing into bed and spending an hour or so reading, I watch TV until I am too tired to keep my eyes open, brush my teeth, crawl in, and turn off the light without touching my book.

Mark Twain gets distracted while telling the story and gets up on his soapbox plenty about capitalism, democracy, nature vs. nurture (it's nurture all the way), religion, and pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps, among other things. But he is a hoot and there are some very funny moments. The fascinating thing is the the mirror-within-a-mirror effect of a person in the 21st century seeing Twain's 19th century-ness reflecting the Middle Ages, and back again.

Sounds of Music and House Remodeling

This morning, Mom and I got up early and went to a Valentine's Day Tea (even though it is not yet Valentine's Day and even though a tea should be held in the afternoon) where our flute choir, Flute Cocktail, entertained and charmed the attending ladies (about 100 of them) with jazz music -- and one Celtic piece.

Valentine's Day Tea

Flute Cocktail is sounding better than ever. We are blending better. We have a better feel for jazz than we used to. But we still have some places where we are hesitant, where we don't play when we should for fear of sticking out, making for a couple of rough spots. But, I believe we are gaining in confidence, too. Our guest artist on the program is Maggie, a friend of Boo's. She is very good -- jazz is her thing -- and seems to like playing with us. We learn a lot from her, too.

This afternoon we met for the second time with our Certified Remodeler, Paul, from House Lift. "Nos cae muy bien" and he reminds me and Mom of about three different people we know, possibly four. He presented us with what he calls a budget of our wish list, which is, in order of priority: 1) new kitchen, 2) new bathroom, 3) another room. All on the 1st floor. The project entails an addition to make all this possible.

Now we know how much it will cost to do everything we want up to top-of-the-line standards. And it will cost a lot. So we are already paring down the wish list to a region that is more affordable. There will be, as I see it, a couple of weeks worth, maybe a little more, of conversation with Paul to figure out how we can get the most bang for our buck.

The ol' house needs some investment and, as those of you who have visited it within the last four or five months know, the areas 1) and 2) are especially in need of improvement.

Of course, this is an extremely preliminary plan. I am kind of excited about the process starting, though, so I wanted to show it to you.

Project Images

Tux

Here you can see Dad's new tux. These pictures were taken after the Choral Society's "Choral Music for Christmas" concert on December 8, 2007.

2007-12-08 Concert

Webcam

Here is a webcam that shows the construction project at Jo's job. We are building a humongous ramp and an addition that will be an expanded Cancer Center.

Choral Work

Dad and Jo attended rehearsal tonight of the St. Mark's Choral Society. The group is working on Mendelssohn's "Elijah" for performance on Saturday, May 17, at 7:30 p.m.

Trip to ABQ

The last seven days of January, Jo was in Albuquerque.

First day in ABQ, 1-25:

2008-01-25 Albuquerque

Trip to Santa Fe, 1-26:

2008-01-26 Trip to Santa Fe

Rocket launch, 1-27:

The launch was totally fun. Jack had already had some experience so he pretty much knew how to put the rocket together and get it ready for launch with just a little grown-up help. There's a rocket club around here that they have hung out with once or twice. Karen emailed them to find out where we could launch this one. It was designed to go up only 300 feet so they said we could pretty much launch it in any large space where we could be reasonably sure of recovering it. The place we went to is right next to the Sandia National Science Labs which are locked up tight as a barrel and if the breeze had been a little stronger and the rocket had landed inside there we would never have gotten it back. The whole process can be addictive. The countdown is exciting as is the hiss of the rocket taking off. Karen says the rocket club people spend most of their time running around in the bush looking for their rockets!

2008-01-27 Rocket Launch ABQ

Greetings

Greetings! Here's a new blog for occasional postings about what's going on at the blue house on 1st Avenue.

This should be big year. We are actively planning a 1st floor kitchen/bathroom remodel including the possible addition of a small room. Our remodeler is going to present us with options on Thursday. Later this year, two inhabitants of the house, M & D (or T & H to some of you), will be traveling to Peru, 40 years after first going. L & J would like to go, too.

This already has been a big year. We hosted the party of the year on January 18 for N y N's wedding. We really like having a houseful of people and, as you can all well imagine, the remodeling project will make that kind of thing easier and even more enjoyable.

So, watch this space.