art family history pragmatic historian preservation sites

Knights in Minneapolis

Last month, Hubby and I had a free Saturday with nothing planned, which doesn’t happen real often. We decided to go out-and-about to wherever struck our fancy. Erik wanted to visit a site in Minneapolis that he had driven past many times without realizing it existed. Somehow he learned of it and thought I would like to see it. As we drove up to this striking landmark on a hill in a quiet Tangletown neighborhood,…

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family history museums observations

Fort Snelling National Cemetery

Last Saturday (August 31), as Hubby and I were trying to decide what to do with our day, he made a suggestion that surprised me. He wanted to visit Fort Snelling National Cemetery. His grandparents are buried there and he’d never been to see their graves. The weather was gorgeous, so the visit was pleasant. Upon arriving, I was struck with how very many white stones there are, all lined up with military precision from…

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health history pragmatic historian reading

Can’t Get Scalzi’s Lock In Series Out of My Mind

My book reading pace has not slowed this year. So far, I’ve read fourteen-and-a-half books, and we’re not even half-way through the year. It’s like I’m playing catch-up on the low-reading years or something. It helps that I’m reading mostly fiction, which I tend to read faster than nonfiction. I’ve also continued on my John Scalzi book binge, which I wrote about last month. Since then, I have read the first two books in Scalzi’s…

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family history museums travel

Darwin’s Big Ball of Twine – Don’t Blink!

Hubby and I visited Darwin, Minnesota, on St. Patrick’s Day. We were in the area of this small town (population around 337), which is known for its giant ball of twine, and I had to stop. For a fiber artist, it’s a must-see. According to the informational signage with the ball of twine, this won the Guinness Book of World Records in 1991 for the largest ball of baling twine constructed by one man, Francis…

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family health history observations

Bathing in the Blood of Virgins – Health Metaphors That Provide Clues to Body Functions

Each morning, I read the 1440 newsletter, which provides snippets of news from around the world, including links back to its sources. It’s called 1440 because that’s when the printing press was invented. [https://join1440.com] In the July 28, 2023, issue, I read an article called “New Blood, Slower Aging,” which discussed how scientists had connected the circulatory systems of young mice to older mice and discovered that the blood of the younger mice extended the…

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