First pontoon cruise this year

When we jumped into the pontoon to take the first cruise of the season, we discovered the battery was quite dead.  Bob went into town to get a new one.

Kyle soaked in the hot tub and read a book while Bob got the new battery installed.

John and Kyle enjoy the ride in beautiful weather.

We went to the other  side of the lake to pick up Christian and his Poppo and Mommo.  Christian helped Bob at the helm.  He did a good job!

At the south end of the lake we checked out this beaver lodge.  It's big.

Christian helped secure the pontoon so that Jan and Ellen could disembark. Christian is enjoying his stay at Pipe Lake and doesn't seem to miss his siblings too much.

Ellen and Kyle sharing some laughs.

Christian working the lines.

Arriving back at the dock.

Let's Cook Pies with Penny and Ellie

Penny and Ellie assembled a dozen pie-makers at Let's Cook on Hennepin Avenue. Scott Rosenbaum, a delightful Nebraskan chef, started out the evening's work with an apple galette.



Dried Fruit Pie Team 1: Penny and Lynn. Where's Ellie?

Here she is working with Lynn and Penny to make the dried fruit pie.

Cranberry Walnut Pie Team 2: Margaret, Kyle, and Janella

Apple Pie Team 3: Suzanne and Mimi. Where's Peggy? Taking pictures.

Thoroughbred Pie (aka Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pie) Team 4: Gracy, Ruth Ann, and Jane

Pie makers hard at work in the Let's Cook kitchen.

Scott demonstrates the leak-proof crimp and then makes it pretty too.

Ramon checks the pies.

Team 1's Dried Fruit Pie
The "V" shaped vent celebrates victory over the vegetable shortening crust!

A slice of Dried Fruit Pie

Team 2's Cranberry Walnut Pie
This just says "holiday" all over it. It is the taste of the holidays too.

A slice of Cranberry Walnut Pie.

Team 3's Apple Pie
The butter crust was so tasty.

A slice of Apple Pie
Bob and I added Sebastian Joe's vanilla ice cream to this--it was divine.

Team 4's Thoroughbred Pie or Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pie
Isn't this gorgeous?

A slice of Thoroughbred Pie
Can you imagine how we waddled out of the kitchen after sampling each of these pies AND Scott's galette starter?

The Let's Cook pie makers: Ramon, Scott, Christa, and Karen. They are great cheerleaders.

Peggy, Susan, and Penny
You'll find more photos at Peggy's Flickr site.

Winter weekend with friends

Geoff, Ellie, Penny, and Pat arrived on Friday afternoon. After a dinner of hors d'oeuvres, Penny and Ellie worked on Saturday morning's brunch.




Penny and Ellie bundled up on Saturday afternoon and walked for an hour in -10ºF temperatures. They returned with pink cheeks and cheery dispositions.


Bob filled the hot tub on Thursday night and started stoking the fire. By Saturday afternoon it was HOT. Ellie, Pat and Penny tried to get it but at 110º it was not to be. Later, Ellie and Peggy managed to get in when it had cooled down to 104! Divine with an outside temp of -10ºF.




We pulled out our laptops on Saturday and worked on organizing our various photo collections. For dinner, Bob roasted a pork roast on the grill. After dinner we watched The Last Waltz, a documentary about The Band. Oh, those folks looked so young in 1976. Did we look like that too?

At breakfast, after a techy weekend, we decided to do a video for UTube with which to impress our children. However, we encountered obstacles. We'll keep trying...


Geoff, claiming luddite status, worked on Sunday's Sudoku puzzle. He also tried to teach Peggy how to pronounce sudoku correctly!


The C O L D temperatures this weekend caused a couple of problems. Colin, Geoff, and Bob responded to a furnace problem at the Breyers. When Geoff and Bob tried to go into town this morning, our car refused to start. Oh, drat. We are waiting for AAA to come to the rescue. We insisted that the others return to Mpls. AAA service is on its way from Siren to help us out.