Mall Of America

By Uncle Hans 

We recently had some spare time to kill in the Twin Cities so we were off to see the famous Mall of America.  I haven't been there since it opened about 20 years ago and Renee, although Bloomington is her lifelong home, never cared for the mall, which changed Bloomington forever..............

.....we arrived on Rechsteiner time, which means the stores were not open yet.  Just old people waddling around.  Still we found some weird stuff. This large store, for example, is the American Girl Store.  You can buy only American Girl brand dolls here and their accessories.  This is almost a cult, and a huge headache, I imagine, for people with daughters everywhere.  The dolls are expensive and so are the accessories.  But they are a must in many families, keeping up with the Jones’s in miniature, but for big bucks!  One of my surgery tech's daughters got invited to an "American Girl Birthday Party"  Which meant she had to buy her little girl a doll and an outfit for the birthday girl. 
    Set her back about $150.  The little scene pictured here through the front window of the store is the beauty parlor for the dolls.  You make an appt, and have your doll pampered and "made over".
    Where is this country going?................

......now these dolls are more my speed.  I noticed there were three Victoria Secrets stores in the mall.  I guess one just got too crowded with dirty old men like me..........

....the mall is still famous for LegoLand.  We found this perennial favorite serpent made of Legos..........

................still, it wasn't as cool as the one in our neighborhood last week.  These kids are very ambitious and creative!!.........

 

.......They were featuring a large display of "Princess Di Memorabilia".  Like many people, Renee loved Princess Di, so she kissed the poster.  Caused some tittering with the old people waddling by...........

.......this store was interesting in that we could not figure out what they were selling.  Something from New York is all we could figure.........

........the third floor is entertainment, bars and theatres.  This space was Planet Hollywood 20 years ago. Guess they didn't make it.................

.........But the Hooters are still there!

   ......I have been to the mall only once, soon after they opened.  I went to buy three things in "the place that has everything".  One was a wallyball (a game played like volleyball in a racquetball court,  the most fun you can have with your clothes on!).  They had three huge sports equipment stores, but none had a wallyball.  Next was a Corvette car model, the kind you assemble and paint and collect, etc.  The had one hobby shop, mostly trains, but no car models.  The last thing I wanted, after a disappointing morning of shopping, was a MacDonald's cheeseburger.
       Strike THREE!  No McDonalds! 
     But I see they have corrected this travesty of justice.  In fact they have a whole food court now..........

......and they have added, for good measure, a convenience store!  I could not find the gas pumps.  I wonder why you would need a convenience store in the Megamall?
     Our trip lead to more questions than answers. 
Also, there are a lot of store windows and mirrors in the mall.  Way too many.  After our tour was nearly over it occurred to me that  those waddling old people we kept seeing were US!

By Uncle Hans

WHAT’S IN THE BOX?

HEY REX……

WHAT’S IN THE BOX?

 

I GUESS IT’S TIME TO BUY A NEW LAPTOP. THAT WOULDN’T BE SUCH A BIG THING EXCEPT YOU HAVE TO BUY NEW SOFTWARE BECAUSE THE OPERATING SYSTEMS KEEP CHANGING.

FOR YEARS I’VE USED MICROSOFT MONEY SOFTWARE FOR MY CHECKBOOK, AND THEY DON’T MAKE THAT ANYMORE, SO NOW I HAVE TO BUY QUICKEN AND LEARN ALL THAT.

IT’S A 15 INCH DELL. I BOUGHT DELL THIS TIME BECAUSE THAT’S WHAT AMY AND DANIEL USE.  THAT WAY WHEN I HAVE A PROBLEM I CAN CALL THEM TO HELP ME.   LOOKS LIKE I’M GONNA HAVE TO PUT AIM’S NUMBER ON MY SPEED DIAL.

DOES THIS MEAN I’M GOING TO BLOG MORE OFTEN OR BLOG BETTER?

DON’T HOLD YOUR BREATH……

Cherry Blossoms in D.C.

This information comes from one of my favorite books, “The First Ladies Fact Book by Bill Harris”.

When Helen Herron Taft, wife of President William Howard Taft, arrived in Washington, Potomac Park was “was mostly a mosquito filled swamp”.  She initiated a “beautify the capitol city” program which included Potomac Park.  When she had visited Japan she fell in love with cherry blossoms and decided they would be beautiful in Washington.  Upon hearing of this desire, the mayor of Tokyo, sent more than 3,000 trees as a gift to the American People.

First Lady Helen Taft planted the first 2 trees herself in March of 1912.

Stamps

I love stamps…

See what I mean?  Why wouldn’t you love that stamp?

I am thankful to whomever (or whoever) thought up the concept of “Forever” stamps.  That was genius!!

I am not the photographer Rex is, so these pictures are not very good but if you look closely you will see that these stamps are all a different denomination – 1 cent, $0.02,$0.04, $0.05, and $0.10. (Did you realize that there isn’t a “cent” symbol on the keyboard?) These have been bought over the years to adjust to postage increases.  I think all the designs are cool and am happy that I have them, but with the “Forever” stamp these will not be needed for that purpose anyway.

I also like the fact that I can sort of fit the stamp to whatever occasion  I am sending something for.  The “Love” one above will go on anniversary cards and valentines.

These will wind up on cards to MY contemporaries.  I am so sorry these are crummy pictures cuz there are good memories in these stamps.

These, of course, will  end up on cards sent to Grandchildren.  They used to have stamps that said “Happy Birthday” on them, but not anymore.  I really miss them.

Someplace, I either read or heard about a father/son artist team that had worked together doing artwork on an upcoming new stamp for the Postal Service.  That got my interest so I eventually bought the stamps when they were released.

 The father/son team worked on stamps with each states bird and flower.  I have bought stamps that I like and fine interesting ever since.  Oh—these are $0.20 stamps.  Anyone know what year that would be?  I really don’t remember.

So anyway this is actually a warm up for my next blog…but it started with an upcoming stamp I saw on a poster in the Post Office.

This is not the actual stamp but a picture on the poster.  I don’t have the stamp yet but I will.

These stamps are to honor the centennial of cherry blossoms in Washington D.C.  That made me think of how, in fact, those cherry blossoms came to be in Washington, D.C. in the first place.  That is the subject of my next blog.

Maple Syrup

By Uncle Hans

A buddy of mine has developed a lucrative hobby: Maple Syrup.  He has a 40 acre woods about 3 miles from town where he lives with his wife and 4 teenagers.   He taps 2600 trees and processes raw sap for several other people who don't have a "cooker".  This is a modern day "tap"...........

.....It connects through tubing to the holding tank.  Miles of tubing..........

.....These three pictures show some tubing, if you look closely.  It stays in place all year, but the taps need to be taken out and replaced each spring......

  ....These are the holding tanks.  A peak night during the season will find 3,000 gallons of sap collected in one day.  The enlarged picture is the gizmo which is a modern miracle.  It is reverse osmosis, which filters the sap through a membrane so fine that only the water molecules can fit, not the other ingredients,  That saves a ton of "cooking" to get the water out. He used to burn 40 cords of wood per year and now only 10, for cooking...............

......this is the cooker.  It uses a wood fire to remove the rest of the water and make the final syrup, which boils at 118 degrees at sea level with normal barometric pressure.  More than 118, and it contains too much sugar and it forms crystals on the shelf.  Lots of science here.........

  ..... he sells most of it in barrels but some in bottles to local merchants.  His woodhouse contains a years worth of wood, as cooking will start tonight........

......Lots of science out here, too.  The sap collects under the influence of a vacuum pump into a central place where it dumps into a normal pressure tub, kicking on a sump pump which moves it to the collecting tank......

....It all starts here with a little piece of plastic and a Black and Decker battery powered drill.  the tap has a check valve in it.

      He will collect over 40,000 gallons of sap and make over 1,000 gallons of syrup in the next 4-6 weeks.  His hobby turns a tidy profit, I'm not sure what a gallon goes for but I am thinking 10-15$, maybe more.....

By Uncle Hans