| Who left the shower on? |
Do you ever feel like a cranky old lady? One moment you are shaking your head and muttering to yourself about "people nowadays," and before you know it you're yelling at the side of a house and no one is even there to hear you.
Tuesday, September 07, 2010 |
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| DNR Q & A: What sort of damage do earthworms cause to MN forests? |
| Monday, August 30, 2010 |
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| Social Security Q & A |
Q: When will I get my automatic Social Security Statement?
Sunday, August 29, 2010 |
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| Bicycling bumps and bruises |
There's nothing quite like zipping along on a bicycle on a warm summer afternoon, watching the trees, clouds, people and cars flow steadily by. That is, until that beautiful scenery provides a sufficient distraction to cause you become intimate friends with the pavement.
Sunday, August 29, 2010 |
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| Inquiring minds: Where does the expression "at sixes and sevens" come from? |
| Tuesday, August 24, 2010 |
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| Doing my duty |
His charge: assault by strangulation.
Our charge: determine if he's guilty or not. And determine it only by the evidence produced in court under the guidelines of the judge.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010 |
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| Summer: When men do dinner |
It's summertime in the Upper Midwest, and suddenly all the men are interested in making dinner.
Sunday, August 22, 2010 |
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| Money Management: New credit card rules and what they mean to you |
Did you know that there are new rules governing the fees and penalties that credit card companies can charge you?
Thursday, August 19, 2010 |
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| Looking for adventure in a 'Vette |
One of my teenage sons has a new love. This powerful muse is long, lean and oh so pretty. She's been turning his head all summer, and I worry that nothing good will come of it.
Sunday, August 15, 2010 |
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| Inquiring minds: I want to buy a back-up electrical generator. How much output will I need to power my average-size house? |
| Thursday, August 12, 2010 |
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| DNR Q & A: What sort of problems does rolling weeds along the shoreline cause for fish and water quality? |
| Thursday, August 12, 2010 |
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| Open season on phantom clowns |
It was both a news story and a cautionary tale for would-be drug users, sure to be thumb-tacked to every school counselor's bulletin board.
Sunday, August 08, 2010 |
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| Shedding light on the firefly |
My cousin Grant was out and about on a warm summer evening when he noticed the twittering light from nearby fireflies.
Thursday, August 05, 2010 |
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| The flag flap |
It began rather quietly, with a concert at Casey Lake Park a week and a half before July 4.
Someone at the concert had caught the seasonal spirit and brought a blanket woven to look like a U.S. flag. And someone had a trio of leashed Corgi dogs in attendance.
Monday, August 02, 2010 |
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| DNR Q & A: Finding all-terrain vehicle or other off-highway vehicle (OHV) trails & riding opportunities |
| Thursday, July 29, 2010 |
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| Inquiring minds: How did the United States handle the deaths of Adams and Jefferson on July 4 within hours of each other? |
| Thursday, July 29, 2010 |
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| Do your retirement plans need retooling? |
Where does your retirement plan stand? Although this phase in everyone's life looms in the future, many people fail to set aside the money they will need to fund a healthy and happy retirement.
Thursday, July 29, 2010 |
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| An open letter to Gary the contractor |
Dear Gary (as we refer to you in casual conversation):
In August of 2008, you bought a house. The house was in disrepair, and had been abused by years of rental use and careless ownership. Those owners and renters did not see the dignity of the turreted roof over their heads, the plaster walls they spoiled, the wood floors they littered with paraphernalia both illicit and dangerous.
Sunday, July 25, 2010 |
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| DNR Q & A: What are the benefits of native aquatic plants along a shoreline? |
| Thursday, July 22, 2010 |
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| Check out Social Security online |
The sun is out and there are a thousand and one things you could be doing outside.
The last thing you want to do is sit in traffic on your way to the Social Security office, or to wait in line once you get there.
Thursday, July 22, 2010 |
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| 'Rock and roll can never die' |
They say old rockers don't die, they just fade away. Apparently, no one has told that to my fellow baby boomers, who can't seem to get enough of the hard-rocking, hard-living music icons from their youth.
Monday, July 19, 2010 |
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| Ten steps for improving relationship communications |
It's a sad fact that almost half of first marriages in this country still end in divorce. For second and third marriages the statistics are even worse. And while there are many reasons for marriage failures, the most common thread in virtually all fractured relationships is poor communication.
Friday, July 16, 2010 |
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| Check the spellcheck - and then check again |
As part of my job as a journalist, I routinely have to write sentences, paragraphs, and from time to time, whole stories, all composed of words and names with correct spellings.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010 |
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| All Aboard! |
Sierra Club, the oldest grassroots environmental organization in the United States, got its start back in 1892 as an outings group. Founded by John Muir, the purpose of the club was to bring wealthy elite and decision makers from the San Francisco area into the Sierra Nevada wilderness so that they could appreciate the beauty of their natural surroundings and be motivated to protect the nation's natural resources.
Thursday, July 08, 2010 |
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| Do not feed the geese |
There's a sign on the entrance door to my apartment building that reads, "Do not feed the geese." What it should really read is, "If you get near the geese, prepare for a battle that could go to the death, with the geese likely triumphant."
Tuesday, July 06, 2010 |
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| DNR Q & A: How does the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) determine when to intervene when bears have wandered into populated areas? |
| Wednesday, June 30, 2010 |
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| A wise old owl once told me ... |
Isn't it funny how an animal encounter can stay with you for years and years?
About six years ago, I attended a workshop down at Whitewater State Park in the middle of January. It was one of those weekends with temperatures down to 20 below zero at night and not much warmer during the day. Luckily for us, we naturalists came prepared with mukluks and snow pants, mittens and wooly hats with earflaps.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010 |
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| Pecking at our reflection |
Each morning here at the newspaper office, a bird flies to the editor's window. Looking into the reflective glass and thinking it has encountered a rival bird, it pecks violently at the window.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010 |
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| Hooked on 'Mich' fish |
Rising with the sun, which seems to arrive awfully early in the Eastern time zone, I arrived at the Mackinac Island dock before the charter fishing boat. It was a perfect, though chilly time to take a few pictures of the pink sky framing the sailboats in the harbor and painting the picturesque cottages along shore.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010 |
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| Give me back my money |
A robotic voice came across my voicemail last week after I missed a call asking me to call the Wells Fargo Fraud Department.
At first I was a bit skeptical. Was this a phishing scam and someone just wanted me to fall into a trap?
Monday, June 21, 2010 |
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