Weekend

Although my weekend plans included dog shows in Wausau, that's not how it played out. The shows were small (less than 500 dogs), the group was tiny (only 33 NS dogs) and breed competition was tough (4 male specials), plus the show site is not one I am fond of. One judge was good for Argus, the other an unknown for him, and I just could not convince myself to give up the whole weekend for something so unpromising. Lot more exciting shows coming up this summer, so took the weekend off.

I'd been watching the website on Perry, the Corpse Plant who was getting ready to flower for the second time, and decided on Saturday morning that I really wanted to see that. http://gustavus.edu/video/perry/offcampus.php. I love unusual plants and this one is even weirder than my Audrey, a strange jungle plant whose Latin name means "giant misshapen penis" and who uses the odor of rotten flesh to attract the insects that pollinate it. Ron & I drove down to St. Peter, to Gustavis Adopholphus College, and paid "Perry" a visit. That's the three of us in the picture. Pretty cool. The flower was amazing, and the smell pretty disgusting. It's very nice that the school opens their greenhouse for this event, and that students and teachers volunteer their time so the public can participate in this extraordinary event.

While in St. Peter we visited a couple of interesting antique stores and came home with something I never envisioned buying, and something we both liked immediately. A 1950s aqua plastic breadbox in perfect condition. Looks great on top of the fridge, with his and hers loaves of bread. Another dust catcher, but . . . Then we celebrated our find at Dairy Queen. Love those Oreo Blizzards!

Finished up the day by bathing the three oldsters. Took the grooming table out to the dog yard, strung the hose out there too, and just used cold water from the outside tap. A little chilly for the dogs, but so much easier than bathing them in the basement, and because the table has a grooming arm it's faster , and a whole lot easy on my back.

When I'm home on weekends I try to plan something to do with my mother. She likes to get out, and says that weekends are the longest, because so many people are gone and there are no organized activities. At 86 she's somewhat limited on what she can do - too much walking is out of the questions - and she just enjoys just getting out for a ride. She still enjoys going out to eat, so I suggested we could do brunch or dinner and she decided brunch would be a nice change. Using trusty Google I came up with a list of brunches in the St. Paul area, selected Chianti Grill because of menu, location and price and made a reservation on line. Slick! Great choice too, as the food and service were outstanding. Absolutely lovely restaurant too - hard to believe the building was once a Ground Round, many $$$$ ago.

Time to go pack up some fish that are being picked up today.