"Most Likely to Succeed"

While preparing dinner this afternoon, my cat, Mittens hopped up on the chair next to me and peeked up onto the counter, wondering what delectable treat I might be preparing.

“It’s just onions, Cutie, I don’t think you like these.”

She hopped down and purred around my ankles.

“Alright, here’s a piece, but I know you aren’t going to be happy about it.”

After I tossed a segment of onion on the floor, Mittens crept over to inspect it, nose stretched to within a few milimeters of the morsel. One tentative sniff and she was gone.

Meanwhile, my parent’s kitten, Puka, had stopped by. Upon seeing Mittens inspecting the eats, she decided to give it a try. Casually walking up to the rejected tidbit, she sat down and gave it a thorough lick.

“Haaack, hack, hack!”

“I told you two you wouldn’t like it!”

I was left to prepare dinner in peace.

I feel like the hometown girl has won Miss America! I have never lived in Kenosha, but I consider it a home for my heart – my mom grew up there, along with her five sisters, two brothers and large Irish-Italian extended family. My grandparents and most of my aunts, uncles and cousins still call it home.

My grandfather’s father immigrated there from Italy, along with a lot of fellow Italians from Cosenza. He married a French – Canadian gal whose family had immigrated from Quebec. He worked in a mattress factory and never learned how to read or write in English, but after he retired, he spent his time biking around the city bringing flowers and visiting with people in the local hospitals. His son, my grandpa has followed his example and has always been very involved in making the city of Kenosha a wonderful place to live through his hard work, and involvement in numerous civic groups. And he always had time to joke with us when we came to visit.

My grandmother, too has spent her life making Kenosha a wonderful place by teaching preschool for years, and always having a welcoming, spotless home with scrumptious spaghetti and meatballs. And don’t forget the Knox blocks waiting for us when were kids. I am so proud  of my grandparents, if you can’t tell. So Kenosha will always be one of my hometowns!

Never mind that I have always lived in Minnesota.

The first time I made mashed potatoes 15+ years ago, they turned out quite well. The next time I made them, five years later, they turned into glue. The third time I tried to make them, they were very lumpy. I know that was in style at the time, but my husband does not like lumpy. I managed, with help from friends who were over at the time, to get them down to “grainy.” I would have preferred lumpy, but at least my husband could get them down, since they were a consistent texture – consistently bad, but consistent.

So this year, I am cheating. No mashed potatoes at our “week-before-Thanksgiving” traditonal Thanksgiving meal. I’m baking up some small red potatoes smothered in olive oil, salt, pepper, and a bit of garlic. Everything tastes better with garlic!

A week or so ago our minivan died. After taking it to several shops and pouring several thousand dollars into it, it still didn’t run properly. So we donated it to a school that fixes cars, and bought a new vehicle.

Our family tries to eat gluten-free, and as any of you who eat GF know, everything GF is a lot crumblier than its glutinous counterpart. Well, the first day that I was picking the kids up from school in the new car, I baked some GF cookies. I brought them as an after-school snack. But I forgot to bring some napkins.

As all of you will elementary students can remember, you put a lot of time and effort in nagging, cajoling, bribing, shaming, threatening, whatever it takes to get your kids to learn to use napkins or facial tissue instead of some other nearby fibers, such as clothes.

So needless to say, my kids think it is absolutely hilarious (they are still laughing about it two weeks later) that when I picked them up from school that day, these are the directions they received:

“I forgot to pack napkins, so if you get crumbs all over your fingers, please wipe them on your pants, do not wipe them on the car.”

I can’t tell you how happy I was  Friday morning when I found the grey intruder motionless under the sink. I so wished that I didn’t have to be at war with these adorable little creatures. But this side of heaven, that will have to be the case – I hope to make it up to them, if they are in heaven, too.

Usually where there is one, there are at least five. But, thankfully, it seems that this dude (or dudette) was enjoying the run of the house to him/herself. A second trap set Friday evening has remained unsprung and very full of peanut butter. Hopefully we are good for now!

I was having fun reading a book for upper elementary students on the great state of Minnesota. Having been born and raised here, and spending quite a bit of time studying the state’s history in 4th grade, I believe, most of it was familiar. But it was fun to see things through older eyes, and there were certain facets that were new to me.

I had known that the iron mining in Minnesota is important to the country, but I hadn’t realized that we have been the top iron mining state for the past 100 years. Though, this book was written almost 10 years ago, and the iron mining in the state has not been doing well for decades, so that may no longer be true.

There was one total surprise in the section on Duluth. The author talked about the “incredible engineering contraption called the Aerial Lift Bridge.” It is a fun bridge to watch. There are at least two such bridges in Minnesota. The other one that I know of is over the St. Croix river at Stillwater.

He then goes on to write: ”[the lift bridge] has a large steel deck that lifts boats into a narrow canal that connects to Lake Superior.” Now that would be something to see – a 1,00 foot boat being lifted from the lake and placed into a narrow canal. I don’t think I could watch!

The bridge does not pick up boats but lifts to let boats pass under it. It is quite impressive to see huge ocean-going vessels slipping through the canal with what seems to be barely more than 20 feet to spare on either side. I would never be able pull it off. I tend to succumb to the “Fraiser-effect” – being pulled into stationary objects rather than being able to steer past them, especially when there are two stationary objects close together that must be passed between!

Slipping under the Aerial Lift Bridge

And watching the boats pass under the bridge, holding your breath as their antennae, seem to graze the deck is quite exciting. But I fear that people will be a bit disapppointed, should they be expecting the other.

Having done writing for a living b.k. (before kids), I sure understand how errors can occur, no matter how hard a team works on a piece of writing. I am guessing it was probably some silly typographical error, but sure does change what happens in Duluth!