SPEBSQSA, Inc. or Barbershop Harmony Society

SPEBSQSA stood for Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barbershop Quartet Singing in America. But it's more than quartets. It's much more.

Betty and I spent the weekend in beautiful Rochester, MN, attending the Land O' Lakes 2007 District Fall Convention and Contest of the Barbershop Harmony Society . She and I have been attending spring and fall contests for over 10 years and have enjoyed every minute of it. It's our regular twice-a-year getaway.

I wasn't able to take any photos during the contest. There are copyright issues and it's really important not to do anything to distract contestants while they are singing.

Friday night there were 22 quartets competing. The top 10 came back Saturday night for the final contest to earn the right to go to the international competition which will be held in Nashville next summer.

Saturday during the day 17 choruses competed for the same honor: competing at International.

Friday evening's contest was followed by the ADC (Association District Quartet Champions) show. Every year, quartets are invited to perform on a 5-year anniversary. This year 1967-1997 quartets appeared plus the 2005 and 2006 district champions. I took a few photos during this show. It's hard to get good color and they move around a lot so bear with the fuzzy yellowy colors.

This first photo is of Downstate Express, 2004 Seniors Champion and 1982 District Champions. Here their bass singer, Gary Rogness, wears a "tiger" face complete with fur while singing "Hold that Tiger" and all the while complaining loudly that it's a "stoopid" song. It is a favorite among those who've heard them and funny to all.


The Happiness Emporium were International Champions in 1975. They have a wide range of music, from comedy to gospel.















Jackpot won District in 1997.














Voices Only won the District Championship last year, 2006. Young, energetic, friendly. Great performers.
















And for those of you who have read my blog because I knit, here's a photo of my Panda Cotton (and Bamboo) sock (Fall Herbs colorway). The pattern is Perriwinkle. They are a little loose so I need to see what I can do to make them smaller. The label says machine wash in cool so maybe warmer water will shrink them up a bit.













The last photo is my newest project, Monkey Socks, made of Knit Picks Felici Superwash Wool, Hummingbird colorway. I've started them with #3 needles but since I did the previous socks on #3 I'm thinking I ought to frog back and use #2 needles to make them fit better. Can't decide yet. It's time for bed.

Alpaca Farm Tour 2007

Every fall the Alpaca farmers in Minnesota put on a farm tour that can cover a LOT of miles. Betty, Ann, and I drove north first, then west of the Cities.
The first 3 photos are at the same farm. There was a little yarn here but I was saving my purchase for "Ruby" yarn from Hollyhock farm.
















































These boys are guarding their flock. The owners were not home. I'd especially wanted to visit this farm as they were very friendly people and we'd found some lovely specialty alpaca yarn that had been spun with some sparkly stuff. But nobody was home. I was glad the dogs were tied.

This barn had lots of yarn, some of it even almost the right color of brown like Ruby. But still I waited. You see, if you buy yarn or roving from the same animal, it will always match.

Gramps looked cute greating everyone from his bench.

This black and white face intrigued me.






This is Ricky. He is a very inquisitive and friendly animal. He seemed to want to sniff everyone who came into his barn. His nose and mouth are very soft. I watched children feeding dandelions to the alpaca and they were very gentle as they took the leaves. Ricky even let me scratch his neck.

When I grow up, I'd like a Ricky.

By the way, Hollyhock Farm had sold Ruby. They had photos of her with her brand new baby. They did not have any yarn from her. Neither Ann, Betty, nor I came home with any new purchases. That has to be a first. But we all know our stashes are pretty healthy at the moment.

We finished with dinner at Texas Roadhouse on Main Street in Coon Rapids. Thanks for driving, Betty.

The Finished Tenderloin

My September 22 blog entry discussed the end-of-summer and a final dinner party at the campground. Since David actually read that blog, he sent a photo of the finished, cooked, resting-for-a-few-minutes beef tenderloin.

Also, since I'm still sick, I don't want to spend much time sitting here at the computer. So here it is. It was really delicious.

Thanks again, David.

Knitting Retreat

[First of all, I really don't think I was contageous. I'd had this cold for more than a week, as of last Friday when the retreat began. And I tried to stay pretty much off to the side of the great room and away from the rest of the ladies. Except during meals when we all sat together. So if any of you come down with this cold, I am truly, truly sorry.]

A friend of my friend Betty, named Darcy, put together a wonder weekend. She found a lovely lodge north of Turtle Lake, Wisconsin, on the eastern shore of Pipe Lake. There were a couple bedrooms upstairs with room for four plus a bunk room downstairs with 3 double bunks. We could see Pipe Lake on two sides of the lodge. There was a large screened porch and a deck in back; a great room upstairs and another downstairs, both of which had large fireplaces. Those would be very nice in the winter.

And there was a large, well equipped kitchen. She got lots of yummy food from a caterer, in Lakeville I think; several lovely meals which she prepared for us. Her husband also fixed a few of the side dishes. Some of the women who attended also brought snacks and things to share. There was cake and pie and cookies, wine, water, soda, assorted breakfast and lunch foods.

In all there were 10 women, Betty, Ann, Ann, Marna, Darcy, Kate, Shauna, Lynn, me, and Pam (in no particular order). I knew some of them from elsewhere and met some of them for the first time at the retreat. All were very nice people, indeed. Knitters are like that; yeah, they are.


When we arrived, there was a lovely bouquet of roses waiting for us. The upstairs great room had many spotlights in the ceiling so we had more than enough light. It rained for most of the weekend, but we didn't mind. We were warm and dry and knitting.


We took a field trip to a local yarn shop and found several kinds and colors of yarns I'd never seen before. The lady who owns the shop opened specially for us. It's not the tourist season any longer. I think we made it worth her while to take a couple hours on a Saturday afternoon.

The bunks down stairs were quite comfortable. Rumor has it the upper bunks were somewhat difficult to get into.






Once or twice the sun came out.









More often it rained. But if you look carefully, you'll see the leaves turning orange across the lake.

Marna brought this jigsaw puzzle of yarn and knitting.

Everyone seemed to get a long well. There were no smokers (yes, I'm prejudiced against smoke--I grew up with a smoking mother and am very sensitive to it). Everyone pitched in at meal time and clean-up time. Those who knew more than the rest were quite willing to share that knowledge with us.

There's probably a lot more to say about this weekend. However, this cold is not responding to the sign-away-your-identity-pseudoephedrine I bought at a 24-hour Walgreens and I think I just need to try to go to bed and get some rest. I forgot to mention the thunder and lightening that kept me awake for quite some time in the middle of the night Saturday.

New Use for Post-it® Notes

I work in a really nice modern office building. The restrooms have auto-flush capability. Unfortunately, the stools work a bit more like a bad bidet. They splash water up on you but it's used water, if you know what I mean.

And every time I lean just a little bit to get some tissue, the splashing starts. It's gone off as many as 3 times before I was done! Yuck.

I was sitting back at my desk, catching my breath from all the startles I'd gotten (hearing aids make toilet flushing really loud). A glance toward the phone to see if I'd gotten any calls while I was gone showed this pack of Post-it Notes and I had one of those light-bulb moments.

Now when I leave for the restroom, I take a Post-it with me and stick it over the red eye at the back of the stool. Now it only flushes when I take away the Post-it...when I'm done and not before. Ahhhh.

Now I can sit in peace.

Tai Chi

Fall is officially here. The weekend after labor day, David hosted a lovely dinner party at the campground. There were two other couples with whom we hadn't socialized much over the years. It was fun to get to know them.

This is the meat he cooked on his grill. It is in the process of being seared here. I didn't get a photo of the finished meat. We were too busy eating and making "yummy" sounds.





Another harbinger of fall is Grandmaster Doc-Fai Wong's annual visit to Chinatown Tai Chi Center. That's me in the upper left corner with my head cut off. The next photo is Grandmaster demonstrating Fair Lady Works the Shuttle on Jerry.





This is a photo of Grandmaster holding the snuff bottle I gave to him. He really liked it. He went into great detail telling how these bottles are painted on the inside with tiny little brushes that have a bend in them.
















I want to thank my "co-mother-in-law" for finding and acquiring this snuff bottle for me. She collects them and knows several good sources.

Tai Chi is something I really enjoy. I credit tai chi with keeping my joints moving. I'm developing osteoarthritis and have already gotten one shoulder joint replaced. I have full range of motion in that shoulder because of tai chi. When I can, I'll get the other replaced as well. And I know I'll attain full motion in that one, too.

The Great Minnesota Get Together

Betty and I went to the Minnesota State Fair on Labor Day. Our second order of business, after eating breakfast, was to demonstrate lace making in the Creative Arts building. I had my mystery stole (almost half done) and the beginnings of a nice lace-top sock.







Betty brought her bobbin lace pillow to show a LOT of people how bobbin lace is made. She's incredibly good at helping people understand how it's done. Click on the photo to see her butterfly and not-quite-finished apple.

And a very nice lady named Lara, whose photo I neglected to take, demonstrated tatting. She does very nice work.




After 3 hours of demonstrating we went to the Hippodrome. Oh, I forgot, it's called the Coliseum now. Anyway the first show was Trailer Racing. There were 8 pickups with horse trailers behind them. The object is for the rider to run from the front of his pickup to the back while his partner carries the saddle. The rider takes his/her horse out of the trailer, takes off the halter, puts on the bridle, saddles the horse...

And rides as fast as possible around the arena twice. Then he/she stops behind his/her trailer, gets off, removes saddle and bridle, puts on the halter, stuffs the horse back into the trailer, and runs to the front of his/her pickup to stop the watch. Amazing. Fastest and shortest race I've ever seen.

It looked like the guy driving this tractor might have been a zamboni driver. His tee shirt had a Minnesota Wild logo on it. He was preparing the arena for the Royal Canadian Mounties.





You'll have to click on this one to see the Mounties--all in a row.

That was the only time they were easy to photograph. Look at the video below to see some of their action. It was most elegant to watch. Handsome men and women riding handsome black horses.

In the horse barn we visited with some of the mounties who were preparing their horses for shipping east by truck to their next state fair gig. I saw these black horses and just had to take their picture.





Actually, they are miniature horses. Aren't they cute?











Of course, a trip to the fair isn't complete without deep-fried cheese curds.







Betty's food from Famous Dave's almost looks healthy. Eeew.











We noticed two huge piles of uncut spuds near a French fry stand. It was late in the afternoon on the last day. I hope they had somewhere to use these potatoes.

All in all, it was a very good day. Kinda hot (I think it was over 90F) and fairly humid.

Take a peek at the videos. They're short. The second one shows them performing one of their more intricate routines. (Isn't Betty's laugh contageous?)

I feel better today

Rant on drivers and such is over. It's time to get back to important things...like MS3. I'm about to start row 243. I know, I know, I'm way behind, but I'm still having fun, and that's the point, right? I don't want to do the wings. I can't really picture them. So I'll probably start again on the other end from row 1 and Kirchner the pieces together. If you google Kirchner, there's a lovely video on how to do it.

If you haven't ready Stephanie's blog yet, you should. It is absolutely wonderful and is a good example of her writing. Her books are more grammatically correct, and just as much fun, as her blog. I try to check it every day.

I try not to get irritable, but . . .

While driving home this evening, about 8:45 p.m., I noticed two things that really, really irritate me.

1. Invisible people. People who are black, brown, red, anyone with a good, dark tan: please wear light colors when you're out walking or biking at night. It's just about impossible to see you in the dark. If I hit you, it ends up being my fault. But you must understand that your dark skin, paired with dark clothing, doesn't reflect my headlights very well. And even white folks wearing dark clothing are hard to see.
   
   
2. Don't turn left to turn right. And vice versa. When large trucks like semis go around a corner, it's important for the front end to pull wide so the rear tires don't hit the curb. Those rear wheels track inside the front ones.
   
   People! You're driving CARS. Very few cars have the same problem large trucks have (notice I said large trucks--NOT pickups). The rear tires of cars don't track more than an inch or two inside the path of the front wheels.
   
   This is very, very important:
   DO NOT pull to the right to turn left.
   DO NOT pull to the left to turn right.
   
   Most cars that do this end up leaving their own lane, crossing the lines clearly painted on the roadway. Do you really think everyone can just jump out of your way when you do this?

Foggy Morning in August and Hearing Aids

We haven't gotten much fog in the last few years. Don't know why. Too dry, maybe. Well, lately we've gotten more than enough rain, at least in some parts of the state, to make up for the drought. Lawns are looking much greener. Pastures, too. Too late for corn, however.

The southern part of the state, if you watch the news, has gotten so much rain they been flood out in areas that normally never flood. It's a real shame. Several people died.

Anyway, I like the fog. I remember many trips to the University of Illinois when I was dating my first husband, Steve, when it would be so foggy you could hardly see to drive. Walking in the fog felt cozy and closed in. It's hard to explain. But I liked it.

On another topic...after 3 tune-ups with the hearing aid guy, Jim, I'm starting to get the hang of hearing things again. I didn't realize how poor my hearing was until I got these things.

There are still some kinks to work out. One that has gotten better (but not great yet) is hearing trumpets and flutes in music. My hearing aids think they are hearing feedback and try to mask the sound. As a result, they play along with the music, but not in tune. It is most annoying.

The auto-program is working better now that the sensitivity has been turned down. Also, he made the transition more gradual between the "regular" and "party noise" modes so it's not so shockingly abrupt. Granted, I paid about $150 more for these than my 1996 Saturn 2 years ago. So they ought to work well.

The technician (I think that's what you'd call him), Jim, is a really nice guy. For one thing, he drives a Gold Wing motorcycle. Can't be all bad, huh? And he attends a church not unlike Eagle Brook.

Now if I can just convince the people who are used to SHOUTING around me to pipe down, I'll be happy.

Twins Game - Indoors out of the Rain!

Here we are at the Dome. Free tickets (because I own a Saturn). Translate "Cheap Seats." That's what it said on the tickets, honest!









I climbed up a few steps to get a better photo of Ben, the one in front, Betty, hidden behind him, and James, on the right with the mustache, pretending to be fascinated by a game play.









This fellow's name is Doug. He sat in front of us and pretended to be "protecting" my jacket, purse, and knitting bag, which were in the chair directly in front of me.










Here's a better shot of Doug, ripping the bun off his hot dog. At first I thought he must be a health nut. He was all muscles. Then I realized those weren't muscles. Those were his brains. Later on he was poking tobakee into his lip and spitting into a not-quite-empty beer glass. Yuck.

That's me up and to the right behind him. The one with the silly grin. Betty is in the red shirt and knitting.



I took my right mitten to the game. I finished the left mitten which I worked on at the last game I attended.







Here's Betty's knitting. I think it's a mitten but it looks kinda skinny.








Betty finished her American flag sox. Aren't they cool?! The yarn created the pattern and looks a lot like stars and stripes.










I didn't knit a whole lot because of tennis elbow which I get from working on a computer all day. Oh, and because the beer would have messed up my knitting.






This fellow has a mega professional-looking camera and was taking videos of a little girl. I don't know if it was some sort of make-a-wish thing or not. I didn't ask. But he was nice enough, while blocking some of my view of the field, to let me take his picture.


And this is Betty and James. James is a friend of Ben's. Nice fellow.
The Twins lost 2-7 to the Seattle Mariners. I've never had the opportunity to watch them actually win a game.