Beautiful Flowers!

Yesterday, I spent an afternoon visiting the Como Conservatory as I do many times during the year. While always beautiful and ever changing with a variety of flowers, this year I became fascinated with the ferns that attach to a wall and needing no nutrients from the soil, but only from the surrounding air. Equally beautiful were the many orchids that were in bloom along with other flowers, particularly mums.

"Hope Chest Barbie"

Fran an Joe, my wonderful salespeople







Just this week, I bought a number of furniture items, lamps and floral displays from Hope Chest here in the Twin Cities.

Hope Chest takes donated items and sells them in their two Twin City Stores. The proceeds help women to undergo breast cancer treatment and who are in financial straits due to chemo and radiation, have children to support, bills to pay and mortgages and rents.

Earlier this month, Hope Chest had a breast cancer awareness evening benefit called 'Barbie B Friends All Star Evening'. At this function, Hope Chest had more than 1000 Barbie dolls collected by a single collector, from the 1980's through the 2000's for sale. The Barbie dolls were in their original packaging and in mint collection. That's right, never removed from their boxes. Photos of some of these Barbies are shown below, plus other items found at Hope Chest.

The Hope Chest Cancer store was founded by Barbara Hensley in 2001. After watching her mother and both of her sisters die of breast cancer, she felt that she needed to do something. She herself had a bilateral prophylactic mastectomy, and underwent genetic testing to see if she had the breast cancer gene. To her relief, she didn't and won't pass it down in her family. During her family ordeals and her own, Hensley's eyes were opened to the hardships many women undergo in addition to the physical assault fighting cancer wages on their bodies.

So with the 'Barbies' and other items in the store, every $100 raised will help  a family, from paying a bill to serving wholesome meals.

Hope Chest stores are located in the Twin Cities 3850 Shoreline in Navarre, Minnesota (952-471-8700) and on 571 Snelling in St. Paul Minnesota (651-642-2850)

"Halloween with the Grandkids-2012"

 

 

 

What a wonderful evening for trick and treating this past Wednesday evening. My grandkids, Piano Man, Desert Princess, Princess Iris, and Baby Petra were all decked out with wonderful customs. How excited they were, and by the end of the evening, many treats of candy were collected, and guess what, this Grandpa received all packages of "Dots."

 

 

"Which way?"

This past week while attending a dinner party, I was reminded that Halloween was just around the corner. My hosts had created an elaborate display of witches with the caption "Which Way!". Captured on photos are a few of these witches with one or two pumpkins thrown in. Happy Halloween Everyone!

"2012 Twin City Marathon"



26.2 miles later-Wow what an experience!




Yesterday was the running of the 2012 Twin Cities Marathon. Over 12,000 runners participated in the 26.2 mile marathon and the accompanying 10 K race. Having a family member in the race was especially nice, and as you can see the kids were full support of their dad and close neighbor with signs that they had held up at different logistic spots along the race. Many say that this race through the environs of Minneapolis and St. Paul is the most beautiful marathon within an urban environment stretching through both cities, along the Mississipppi, down historical avenues and finishing at the State Capitol in St. Paul. Brrr! it was cold yesterday.

Can 'Big Bird' be the answer to our deficit?

Very seriously, we now have the answer for handling our deficit and getting our economy back on track. Candidate Mitt or Willard Romney after three weeks of 24/7 evaluation and analysis has concluded that 'Big Bird' and his side kick, 'Elmo' are the reason for our current deficit and if eliminated, our future horizons will be bright. So, 'Big Bird' has to go and once gone regulations on Wall Street are definitely not necessary. So we now have specifics from Romney, and our problems can be solved. Thanks for the memories and here are a few songs that will help us remember the excesses of 'Big Bird' and 'Elmo'.




Add caption

 

CLICK BELOW TO HEAR SONGS:

http://youtu.be/B3FzW5vQUm4-Big Bird Cheer Up Song

http://youtu.be/Py2f38iPBeI-Elmo's song

http://youtu.be/PzFXfvZuLK0-Big Bird's song

"Hamline Alumni Weekend"

This week happens to be alumni week at my alma matter, Hamline Univiersity which is located in St. Paul Minnesota. While there are many activities and get-togethers planned, what is really special is that our beloved tennis coach, Dr. Benjamin Lewis is going to be inducted into the Hall of Fame this Friday, October the 5th.

Coming from long distances, many of  my old team members  will  attend this event. Together we will all be one in recognizing 'Doc' who touched so many of us in a profound and wonderful way.

Dr. Benjamin Lewis ('Doc')

What many do not realize is that Hamline University was the first institution of higher learning established in the Minnesota Territory way back in 1854, even earlier than the University of Minnesota. Its first home was to the south of the Twin Cities in the river community of Red Wing, but was later moved to St. Paul where the campus is today. The school was named after Bishop Leonidas Hamline, a Methodist minister, who donated the funds as a benefactor for Hamline's beginnings.
 

In 2004, Hamline celebrated its 150th birthday. Today the guiding principles for the University, the faculty and the student body remain the same. Those principles are:

 

Do all the good you can do.

By all the means you can.

Picture of First Graduating Class

In all the ways you can.

In all the places you can.

At all the places you can.

To all the people you can.

As long as ever you can

Old Main

Photo of Bishop Hamline