Monday, October 29, 2007

You CAN go home - and I am!


I'm safely home to Madison, finally settling down a bit from the excitement of seeing Crazy Aunt Purl - that was such a singular experience that it warrants its very own entry and shall have it.

However, in the meantime - see that house? That's not where I am. Not right now, anyway. But it IS my house. The house I lived in, in Minneapolis, from about 1946 until about 1959 as I recall. It's 4621 2nd Avenue South. When we moved there I was three years old; my father was working at the Minneapolis Star & Tribune (as it was known then) and we moved from a duplex on campus. See the windows on the second floor? The left-hand one was my sister's bedroom, the one on the right (and on the left on the side of the house) was Mommy and Daddy's room. The back window on the side was my room. The first-floor windows are the living room; the dining room was to the left when you went in, and that little part poking out front with the door was a front closet to the left of the door.

From that house I met my best friend, truly my BFF, Mary. She'd come visit her grandparents on Sundays, arriving in her aunt's black car. I met her when we were three - she was playing outside and I was too, and Mommy came to watch me cross the street so I could go play with her. (Incidentally, all those houses are gone now, replaced by a big wooden wall concealing the cross-town highway.) We went inside and she introduced me to her grandparents, whom I called Grandma and Grandpa Hanson all their lives. Mary was exotic! She had blonde hair and blue eyes; she lived in an apartment (never had heard of such a thing); she had no daddy, but lived with her mother ("Mrs Mary's Mom") and her Aunt Dorothy. And she came every Sunday. Eventually they moved to the neighborhood, but when we were in high school her mother remarried and she moved again so we didn't finish high school together.

I loved that house. My room had been the boy's room (and I was sort of "the boy"...Dale, you know - I added the hyphen later). My room had airplane wallpaper on the ceiling, which I adored, and it had a little mop porch too, my own tiny balcony. I can date that period of my life by remembering the wallpaper: the airplanes were flying boxcars and other WWII aircraft.

The Lovely Daughter and I stopped past on our way downtown to meet my sister on Friday. And get this: My house is for sale!! I took a picture of the for-sale sign too, because you know what? I think I'll call and ask how much and so on. Just -- you know, to see. Our chances of a) buying it, b) returning to Minneapolis, c)being invited to perform "Scheherezade" for the Pope are about equal. Still.........

Incidentally, we met my sister at Rudolph's. As in "barbecued ribs Rudolph's". Now, I know, as Jew I'm supposed to not eat pork. Or seafood without fins and scales. I have this agreement with the Lord though. He allows me barbecued ribs, shrimp and the occasional lobster and I'll live as right as I possibly can and won't ever kill anyone on purpose or rob any banks. That being said, ribs are about my most favoritest food. I mean, BAD ribs are ok, and they go up from there - and the pinnacle, the epitome - that's Rudolph's. Kind of unfortunate, because you can't eat ribs and knit at the same time. Although...I suppose I could cast on cotton yarn for a me-sized bib and work on it while eating ribs.

Afterward {burp} we went back to the MOA, staying until 9:30; the stores close at 9:00, but we ended with supper at the Rainforest Cafe. Not bad - and there's a thunderstorm with lightning and rain every 20 minutes or so. (It rained ... over there...we didn't actually get wet.)

NOTE: when we first arrived, after Rudolph's, we found a parking spot in a tiny lot smack-dab-aroonie RIGHT in front of the Main Entrance. See entry about Crazy Aunt Purl; that was the second instance of Uncommon Good Karma on the trip. (Thanks, KMKat, for the first one!)

What'd we see? EVERYTHING! What did we get? Well...heck, Halloween stuff was on sale everywhere. I got some wonderful black tealight candles with flickering red flames, which look fab in my spider-y and ghost-y and lantern-y decorations. I got some terrific socks with roses and stuff on 'em. I think my major purchases were at Bath & Body Works, which we DO have here, but this one was HUGE and had all kind o' stuff our store doesn't, and on SALE! I got a very pretty snowflake scented-oil diffuser, and a pumpkin night-light scent diffuser you plug in. (Caramel scent, and it's delish. I have it in the bif - but may move it, "caramel" isn't quite the right scent for a bif.) And Lovely Daughter and I found hand lotion in our new favorite smell, "Sensual Amber". NOTE: they used to have hand lotion called "Purely Silk"; they've changed the name to "Ultimate Silk" and added little bits intended to look sparkly. May I say, that stuff is the ONLY lotion I've ever found that you can put on and knit immediately. It really IS silky, not greasy. Because I'm paranoid about companies discontinuing the neat stuff, I bought two... a few ...about half-a-dozen bottles in my favorite scents last year. And now this - if you ever see me and you have dry elbows, knees, knuckles, friends, neighbors or pets, just ask. I can silk them right up. Just sayin'.

We also found a wonderful shop with all kinds of teas and Lovely Daughter bought a tin of an amazing, aromatic blend. We examined, perused, ogled, leered at and eyeballed probably everything else in the Mall. There are amusement park rides inside there, you know. Like things where you sit there and they whip you around and sling you up over their shoulders about 40 feet in the air. Lovely Daughter remarked "You know it's not a good ride unless someone blows chunks." TMI. Thenk yew very not at all. Suffice it to say - we didn't go on any. I could've been persuaded onto the carousel or Ferris Wheel, but we didn't. Too much to see, not enough time (although - and I am NOT making this up, at one point the Daughter said, "You know, Mom? I'm about shopped out." (!)

We returned to our motel - OH! I had a little trouble logging on when we first got there (and could almost feel the hives crawling around under my skin getting ready to erupt) but they had a sort of router-booster thingie which, when plugged in, did the trick. Daughter observed that it was a "slow connection" but it really was fine. Interestingly, in this day and age if computer connections take more than a nano-micro-millesecond, we think they're slow.

Anyway, we rose early Saturday morning, had our Complimentary Breakfast, checked out, and hot-footed back to the Mall for a quick scan before heading home. We checked back at a couple of places we wanted to stop to get things for the folks back home (I got some Harry & David Moose Munch, glamorized superior Cracker Jacks(tm) for Mr Dearling and also, at Hallmark, a tin of Godiva hot chocolate. He's not a coffee or tea guy but does love him some cocoa. By then it was 1:00, a little later than we intended to leave, so rather than find the crepe place for lunch we grabbed Orange Julii and headed out.

CONFESSION: I live in dread terror of hitting deer on the highway. You see, I did, once - with all three children in the car (which was a VW Beetle). None of US were hurt, except poor Daughter who, sitting up front with me, absolutely lost it, sobbing for the poor deer. This was long pre-cellphone, but some cops came along; we wound up spending the night nearby - this was in the Dells - and the car was driveable. The deer had crossed the Wolf Road for sure. Mr Dearling and I have also taken out two other deer and about a 25# turkey with "Deerslayer", our '93 Toyota.

So I prefer driving in daylight so I have a chance of seeing them - oh, and FYI: there's no such thing as "seeing a deer". They're herd animals, and NEVER alone. As it turned out, we wound up driving through dusk, The Time of Greatest Risk, AND after dark, but my constantly-muttered prayers were answered and my fleet-footed brothers all stayed back in the forest away from the road. We'd seen something over 23 that had been hit on our way up, and KMKat said she'd seen many of them on her much-shorter ride too.

We got home safe and sound; the only slight "off" moment was that we stopped at A&W in Baraboo where I stupidly consciously and with forethought ordered and ate a chili cheese dog with onions, exacerbated by fried onion rings AND a root beer. Did I say I don't do well with, oh, you know, gassy-tummy-causing foods?

But the effects did NOT kill me, I'm safely tucked in by home, recovered but for the occasional "squee" that escapes me when recalling Crazy Aunt Purl - and facing the realization that it is now four days, and NOT two months, before I have to give my presentation at the North American Voyageurs' Council. {shudder} But I WILL share the Crazy Aunt Purl experience before leaving for NAVC. (Oh, and all I have to do on the second punkin hat is sew on the stem, and they both fit the grandsons for whom they are intended.) See? I did get knitting in here a little bit.......

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sounds like you and LD had a simply loverly trip! I got to see the Yarn Harlot back in September, but I was mostly worried the whole time because my hubby had our 3 boys at the state fair by himself and I'm paranoid. Turns out they were alright, although I almost hurt him real bad when I found out he had left his cell-phone in the car the whole time. I had been calling and calling, and thinking something had happened, etc etc. I think yours was better.

dale-harriet said...

Kathy - you may not want to know what your DH and sons did at the Fair. I'm sure they were fine too, but I bet there was a lot more belching and farting and consumption of foods you wouldn't have considered! (I had two sons, I'm not just goofin' on you.) Better not to know, and wasn't it fun seeing the YH too??

Anonymous said...

Have you checked out CAP's photostream at Flickr? You and LD are in several. I am, too, but only in the background. She was SO happy to meet you! And so was I. Glad you got to shop 'til you dropped and had a safe trip home.

Anonymous said...

We had a Deerslayer too, only it was a Plymouth Valiant from about 1974.

What, you didn't come home with thigh-high laceup Minnetonkas?

Molly Bee said...

Your trip sounds like so much fun! Glad you made it back home (and to the potty) safe and sound. Hope to see you at Knit Night!

Anonymous said...

Great trip. I think you and daughter know how to have a good time!