Andrea Kaston Tange
@aktange
Victorianist & lit professor, gardener, lover of quirky details. Writing sporadically at
Thank you. This, from the article to which this letter is a response, made me chuckle aloud.
Planning a good trip is a life skill. My daughter is currently driving from CA to MN w/2 friends, and she (chief researcher for the itinerary) has just sent this w/a note saying that in addition to having an excellent cafe, the Idaho Potato Museum gives you a free souvenir potato w/ticket. #winning
Days like this are among the top 3* reasons to live in MN: sunny, 81º w/low humidity. You can be outside all day. Little whisps of breeze feel like a caress. (Porch furniture currently drying in the sun, so pls excuse the less-living-room-like state of same.) * 20º & snowing heavily also among top 3
When the hardware store assures you that they absolutely have the right color formula for the touch-up paint you've requested, even though they don't recognize the recipe on the old can... (Yes, this was after it dried. Yes, I have repainted the entire bathroom now.)
If you're syllabizing this week or next, may I recommend a few advertised Dog Office Hours, especially if you're teaching courses with first-year students? Dogs are an even better draw/ice-breaker than doughnuts, ime.
This wall (color = Hazel) and this new tile. It's a powder room built under the stairs, so it's been a little tricky to work in because it's so small.
The thing about having a dog for yr workout partner is that he never clucks sympathetically if you're feeling draggy & says "we can skip today if you want." He just boings right up to you, first thing in the morning, confident in the knowledge that the two of you are about to do something FANTASTIC.
Writing is changing the dates on sections of your story because you need to have a mother and daughter cleaning gooseberries and shelling peas, respectively, while they have a conversation, and that can't happen in the May you'd arbitrarily picked, so now it needs to be June.
Do not walk your dogs this morning, Minnesotan friends. And spare a thought for those up north battling the wildfires raging in the Boundary Waters wilderness area. I did not know AQI (below 50 = healthy) could apparently go up indefinitely, but it's 1270 in Ely, MN right now. 💔
If you want to know what an actually great state fair can be, or you already know and want to revel in those details for a minute, I wrote about them here (link in quote post)
This is from eight years ago today, and it's pretty much how the Upper Midwest feels today too. In honor of the fact that it's a zillion degrees with a million percent humidity, let's talk about SALADS. What are your favorite chilled-dinner-in-a-bowl meals for hot weather?
Every state sends their biggest youth-grown pumpkin, their most perfectly canned beans, their chickens with the most fabulous hairdos, and whatever else they think best represents them. MN sends crop art to knock your socks off.
My critiques = opposite these criteria: Public art needs/a local connection (I love the loon statue made by the Scottish kelpie statue guy because it's so perfectly Minnesota); should be subject of annual efforts to add more; should be accessible (NOT lowest common denominator but higher variety)
This humongous evergreen got a massive chop last week & today I installed this low wall to hold the hillside in. Tomorrow the plants go in. I carried a literal ton of boulders building the wall & I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel a little proud of that work. Also too tired to get off this couch.
Unfortunately, my article might be one sentence: we live in the absolute dumbest timeline.
Despite appearances, this is not an AI dog. He's just very very comfy and really really relaxed thankyouverymuch.
This dog likes to follow his people around the house. Now that the college kids are home, there are more people to follow! Which means he's constantly leaping up from a restful place to see where that person leaving the room might be going! Which eventually makes a dog tired, obviously.
Remember when research meant printing pages of primary sources from CD-ROM/microfiche collections, which you nerdily organized into a binder so you could use them again? I'm here to tell you that if you drag the binder around for 30yrs, you'll use it again & feel fully smug about your life choices.
Chat is it bad if this third pointy thingy seems to have fallen off mid-flight?
Absolutely. Mr. Guilty sits just out of the frame, contentedly. Like this, but even more blase.
This is why a reader must consider the whole text, which in this case includes illustrations, and which thus will clearly indicate that your plate is full of green...
My dog has had a day of high energy and enjoyable challenges punctuated with long, deep-sleeping naps. And I think we all should take a lesson from dog.
Here is my daughter's latest sculpture (looking at it from the back), and yes, one lock of the mermaid's hair is being lifted into the air by the breeze. I am in awe that someone can do this in ceramics.
I love how all the laughing gulls on the beach are facing directly into the wind, like a flock of sailboats. Except for Phil. He's always been stubborn like that.