Rainy-day thoughts

We're supposed to have four days of rain and clouds, with highs in the mid-40's. We were about due; these past few days probably were the longest span of time we've done without rain all year... all of eight days.

I reinforced my theory that you can substitute butternut squash in any recipe that calls for pumpkin by making some butternut squash bread. It goes down real easy accompanied by a cup of hot green tea.

I was looking over the roster at the high school football game yesterday and was amazed that over half the last names were the same ones that were on the roster when my kids were attending over twenty years ago: Schaberg, Hough, Thilking, Strickler, Lohsandt, Ward, Niendick, Willard, Wieligman, Seitz, Beckemeyer, Bowling, Register, Good, Bryant, Reismeyer, Beissenherz. It's a small town, the size town from which people usually escape in order to find jobs; but we're situated close enough to Kansas City so that many young people choose to stay here. Or, like my daughter, they return. Notice there's predominance of German names on the list. A huge percentage of the old-time farmers were German, and the U.C.C. Church in town held services in the German language until, I believe, World War I.

I took a few pictures of a couple of little boys at the game. They entertained themselves so very well, and I had fun watching their antics. I had every intention of posting those pictures in a blog entry, but I hesitate to do so. Now, if it wasn't in my own community, I'd think nothing of it. But I know some people don't want their kids' pictures on the Internet, and when it's somebody so nearby, I think I'll pass. I found out who they were from Tracy, who sees all and knows all that goes on in my town (you may think I'm kidding, but it's TRUE). But I don't know the parents at all. I'd feel pretty funny calling strangers and saying, "Hey, I have a blog and I took pictures of your kids. Can I put the pictures on my blog?"

I also had a lot of fun yesterday listening to snippets of conversation amongst the teenagers behind me on the bleachers. I wish I'd taken notes.

Question for the people in charge of music that plays over the speakers at local football games? Why are you only playing rock songs from the 80's? Don't you have any Green Day? Geesh. If you're going to play old rock, let's go on back to the Beatles while we're at it. (I kid; I like 80's rock, having had it forced upon me by my children back in the day.)

I'm getting along better and better with my Mac, finding lots of sites to help me with questions that arise. There's even a Mac Mini forum.

The Ipod is on shuffle, playing through the speakers of my stereo system all my favorite songs. This is a good place to be on a rainy day.