The Bulletin
Sunday, April 25, 2004

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FAMILY UPDATE

by Don Anderson

I feel a bit guilty reading The Bulletin but not contributing to it. Mainly it is I don't have much to add.

Our lifestyle has changed much since moving to Minnesota. But in my opinion, it goes well at my age.

Today I was to some stores who are promoting spring sales of plants, grass seed, shovels, lawnmowers and the like. In the past years I have kept busy with flowers, yardwork and home maintenance. I can honestly say I do not miss it at all.

Now I can enjoy taking life a bit easier and I find time to work in my shop. I have just finished updating the wheelchair carrier on our car. Maybe I should call it a "quick tatch" a term used by the John Deere Co some years ago. This works on the same principal to mount or unmount the carrier. Just pull one pin and the "dolly" moves it away. It is not necessary to have it on if you're not taking the chair. Our new Lincoln handles the rear load much better then the Buick.

Spring has come to Minnesota. I won't have to think of gardens, and the things a home owner has to do. I do not keep anything around that has a handle, like a hoe, rake or shovel.

Dorothy and I enjoy an outing around various lakes in the evenings. Sometime ago we visited our old farm home at Miltona, 12 miles north of Alex. It was sad to see it in shambles. When we lived there in 1955-56 it was a beautiful place. Large dairy barn, silo, tile hog house, machine sheds, and an almost new 3 bedroom house. I was offered the farm 120 acres for $16,000. Yes, that's right! But past experiences with no crops in ND, prompted us not to buy it.

We are glad to be living here; we see our children often and have met many good friends since coming here.

We are glad for our ability to move around freely, but staying close to home is a necessity at our age.

Living here has been good because we are within a mile from our hospital, clinic, bank, grocery store, with Wal-Mart, K-Mart and Target about 2 miles. Our favorite restaurant is handy; however we like our kitchen the best for meal preparations.

It was "Alexandria Or Bust" 54 years ago (1950); it now looks like history is repeating itself. Yes, we like Douglas County and Alexandria!


UPDATE

by Lori Chap

Things are going good here. Chris, Weston and I start sand volleyball tomorrow night (weather permitting) and I survived the first thunderstorm of the year in my new house. It was actually good to get the rain and nothing too menacing transpired by us. There's a little different thought process involved when the potential for hail is announced on the weather forecast: "Oh, no! My roof!" ;-)

This past weekend we (Chris, Weston, Wyatt and I) also attended the Twins game with 45 of our closest friends. ;-) It was a beautiful day, making us all wish for an outside stadium. We managed to have a good time, even though trapped under the dome, and the game was fun to watch. Go, Twins!

Have a great week … look forward to next week's edition!

Love, Lori


Travelogue t

The Bolivian Beat
By Kjirsten

I'm in Sorata at the moment! Yesterday I crossed the Bolivia-Peru border. A reasonable "fine" (bribe) to officials on each side allowed me to avoid the normally requisite 24 hour stay in Peru. Blockades there would have prevented me from going anywhere interesting.

Sorata is lovely! It's located between La Paz and Lake Titicaca and is Bolivia's most important trekking center. The surrounding countryside actually reminds me a lot of Morochata, except 21,000-foot Mount Illampu towers over it all. Stubborn clouds prevented me from appreciating Illampu's splendor for most of today :( but I did a most pleasant day hike to a neighboring village and cave.

Tomorrow I hike with a guide to Laguna Chillata and hopefully make it back to Sorata in time to bus to La Paz. Of course I didn't do the math and realize the hike involves over 5,000 feet of elevation gain and tops out around 14,000 feet until I had already paid the guide... But I've already promised myself all the sushi I can eat in La Paz for dinner. Combined with the threat of blockades starting Thursday, it shold be sufficient motivation. :) So wish me clear skies and an efficient cardio-vascular system!

Time to go,

Kjirsten


April Fool's Day!

The Miss Kitty Letters*
By Miss Kitty

My First Birthday

April 23, 2004. Well, we've just had a lovely time celebrating my very first birthday today. Never mind that I was a lost kitty and didn't come with a birth certificate. When Miss Jerrianne first took me to see my veterinarian, he checked me over and decided I must be about five months old ... so he wrote April 23 on my chart. Done!

Well, we could have fudged a bit ... and celebrated a couple of days earlier with Queen Elizabeth, who turned 78 last Wednesday, or waited a couple a couple more days and celebrated with Miss Jerrianne's sister-in-law, Mia Nelson, who wrote in The Bulletin about her goatpacking adventures with Wylie and Arbor. An earlier idea of celebrating my birthday on Arbor Day just didn't work out ... Arbor Day comes much earlier in Oregon than it does in Alaska, where it isn't observed until May.

Then we learned, from my favorite vet ... who sends me presents from Connecticut and lives too far away to make me suffer inoculations and other indignities ... that April 23 is a very special day in England because it's the birthday of Mr. William Shakespeare, who is considered the greatest playwright who ever lived ... and of St. George, the patron saint of England, who is famous for slaying a dragon. I'll wish Mia and my favorite vet Happy Birthday on Sunday, and I'll stick with today.

A kitty's first birthday is very special, because that's when a kitten becomes a cat ... sort of like turning 21 for people, I guess. And there have been big changes: now that I've gone from 5 pounds to 8 pounds, my harness was just a bit too snug, even though I've maintained my svelte shape with a trim little waist. So Miss Jerrianne found an adjustable harness that's more comfortable. Then she strapped my Celltei pouch to a set of luggage wheels with bungee cords and -- voila! -- it's a stroller. Now when we go outside for walks, I have wheels under me. Very cool!

I've given up sleeping in my "crib" and just find a comfortable spot on the bed. Miss Jerrianne stopped buying kitten food quite recently. She buys me grown up cat food now ... and last week she bought a little tub of wheat grass at the store. I'll mow my grass indoors, but we'll still have the lawn service mow the outside grass. I'm happy about that ... as it's way too much lawn mowing for one little kitty cat!

So ... my birthday celebration began with an e-card from Miss Hetty and the staff of The Bulletin. I loved it! I jumped up on Miss Jerrianne's lap when the music began and I watched all the critters get their ice cream cones. I wanted to step up on the keyboard and walk right up to the screen for a lick of the kitty cat's ice cream cone. That didn't work, but if you don't go for what you want, why you'll just never know!

Then, to my surprise, I got a birthday cake! Real sponge cake with whipped cream and strawberries and a candle on top! When I reached out to sample the whipped cream, the candle singed my eyebrows! Whew! I like whipped cream, but I decided I'd better let Miss Jerrianne blow out the candle for me. We worked out a deal: she opened the new bag of kitty treats for me and she ate the strawberries and cake.

And there was more! New bouncy balls and a catnip mouse with a very long tail ... on a stick, so Miss Jerrianne can go fishing for cats ... that's me! She must think I'm a catfish! But the best was still to come. She went to the refrigerator, opened the catnip jar and tossed me a very cool mouse ... very realistic ... with real mouse hide! I love real mouse fur mousies! I chased this one all over the house for hours.

This has been a swell birthday! I chased my new mouse behind the broom and it fell over with a thunderous crash. No harm done. I chased it through my tunnels and fished it out of my pizza box. I chased it under the stove and had to get Miss Jerrianne to fish it out with the flashlight and her long green tomato stake three times. I've kept close watch so it doesn't get lost ... though I think I saw TWO MORE mousies in the catnip jar. If I count my wealth in toy mice, I am rich, indeed!

For more Miss Kitty adventures visit my web log:

http://www.jlowther.com/Pages/kitty/index.html

Miss Kitty



This and That
6
by Elaine Wold

Thoughts I Had About Income Tax....April 15

Easter Sunday marked TAX FREEDOM DAY. It was the day when the average American had earned enough money to pay off their total tax bill for the year.

We work 28 days to pay taxes to Uncle Sam,
8 days to pay state and local taxes,
28 days to pay social insurance taxes,
16 days to pay sales and excise taxes,
11 days to pay property taxes,
9 days to pay business taxes.

According to the Tax Foundation this is how long we work to afford our lifestyles:

Housing and household operation....66 days.
Health and Medical Care....51 days.
Food....31 days.
Transportation....31 days
Recreation....22 days.
Clothing and accessories....14 days.
Savings....5 days.
Everything else....44 days.

Interesting, isn't it?


Household Hints H

by Mavis Morgan

...for those of you who do not make your own bread...

When you buy bread in the grocery store, you wonder which is the freshest, so you "squeeze" for freshness or softness. Did you know bread is delivered to the store five days a week and each day has a different color twist tie?

They are: Monday-Blue, Tuesday-Green, Thursday-Red, Friday-white, Saturday-yellow.

So if today is Thursday, you would want a red twist tie, not white which is last Friday's delivery (almost a week old). The colors go alphabetically by color: blue, green, red, white, yellow ... Monday through Saturday ... very easy to remember. Even the ones with plastic clips have different colors.

Enjoy fresh bread when you buy bread with the right color on the day you are shopping.


Celebrations & Observances
From the Files of
5
Hetty Hooper
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This Week's Birthdays:

Troy Freesemann---April 25
Mia Nelson---April 25
Heidi Johnson---April 26
Peggy McNeill---April 27
Steve Rodriguez---April 27

Happy Birthday!

May birthdays:
'
May 4---Beau Birkholz
May 7---Ben Johnson
May 10---Curt Henderson
May 12---James Dake
May 14---Ernie Dake
May 16---Angelie Ann Freesemann
May 17---Dwight Anderson
May 19---Ryan Hellevang
May 22---Dan Henderson
May 23---Don Pettit
May 24---Amy Ellen Dake
May 26---Rick Anderson
May 28---Jazmine Jane Hill (1 year old)
May 29---Kristi Kay Indermark
May 31---Mavis Morgan

May anniversaries:
Z
May 16---Nathan and Brenda Hill's Wedding Anniversary (8th)
May 20---Steve and Marian Miller's Wedding Anniversary (34th)
May 27---Dwight and Janie Anderson's Wedding Anniversary (33rd)
May 31---Tom and Mavis Morgan's Wedding Anniversary (47th)

Other May Holidays & Observances
May 9---Mothers' Day
May15---Armed Forces Day
May 31---Memorial Day (observed)
~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thank you for the clever e-card, Miss Hetty. I loved it. ~ Miss Kitty

Thank You!

Please drop Miss Hetty a line and tell us who we missed.
And how about a report (photos welcome) of YOUR special celebration?

'Many Thankse
Everyone!

Miss Hetty


+ LETTERS TO THE EDITORS?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Great Bulletin! I loved the Easter pictures provided by Wyatt and all the stories; especially Beaver's and the one about Jayce's job! ;-) It was also nice to see you & Grandpa over Easter and talking to you about our ancestry. I thoroughly enjoyed that. Doug's story in the last edition was wonderful, too, and Brianna sure did a nice job with the graphics.

Lori


Thanks for sending us The Bulletin. Just received #97. If OK with you, I would like to send some issues to Lorraine.

All is well here at our CABIN IN THE WOODS. We are busy with the usual outdoor spring work. However, one of these years we will have enough of snow plowing, lawn mowing and general outdoor maintenance.

Ruth and Wallace Slotten

Editor's comment: I would be pleased to have you send any that you want to Lorraine -- and tell her Greetings from us!


QUOTATION FOR THE DAY: People can be divided into three groups: those who make things happen , those who watch things happen, and those who wonder what happened. --John W. Newborn


EDITOR'S POLICY: If you wish to subscribe to The Bulletin, simply send me a statement of that fact. If you wish to keep receiving it I hope you will contribute to one of the columns that are running in this family epistle (at least occasionally!). My e-mail address is dma49261@juno.com


This Bulletin is copyright Dorothy M. Anderson; the contents are also copyrighted by the authors and photographers and used with their permission, and the contents are not to be used for any commercial purposes without the explicit consent of the creators.