MINNESOTA ODYSSEY RECAP

We had an uneventful trip home from Nathan & Laura's yesterday. It was hard telling the kids & grand-kids good-bye. We had a great visit with them. It only took Claire, the one-year-old, 4 1/2 days to warm up to me, but before the end of the week she was letting me hold her & walk her around. Lois bonded with her almost immediately. Calvin & I watched episodes of PJ Masks & Veggie Tales, & I played super heroes with him. On Friday night we ordered out Chinese from LeeAnn Chinn's. Not bad! I had egg rolls, steamed dumplings, shrimp & vegetables, & shared cream cheese puff--crab Rangoon--with Laura. * Probably the next time we'll see them in person is when we have our family reunion in Omaha toward the end of June.

* There I go again, posting comments about food.

ROAD TRIPS

Lots of road trips in January. We visited David & Carmen in Texas & made a side trip to San Antonio. We spent a little over a week at Nathan & Laura's in Eagan, MN. We're well on our way to meeting our goal of at least 8 road trips this year. A week from tomorrow we'll fly to Florida & spend 3 weeks with Lois' sister Kathy in St. Petersburg. Hopefully we'll also make a side trip to the Everglades. In March we plan to visit John & Wanda in California & make side trips to several national parks.

COVID NEWS

Lois & I were able to register for the vaccine with both the State of Nebraska & Madison County. We're really hoping we'll get the first shot before we leave for Florida.

WHAT WE'RE WATCHING

While we were at Nathan & Laura's we watched Hamilton. Several years ago I read his autobiography, written by Ron Chernow. We found it very entertaining. For the most part it was faithful to the book.What a surprise to find out that George Washington was African American!

WHAT I'M READING

I finished reading "A Blaze of Glory:  A Novel of the Battle of Shiloh," by Jeff Shaara. It's book 1 of a 4-book series about the Civil War in the West. [I read the first 2 books out of order.] Now I'm reading "The Smoke at Dawn," which focuses on the Battle of Chattanooga. The last book in the series is "The Fateful Lightning."

RESOLUTIONS REVIEW

Here's my progress report about my 2021 New Year's resolutions.

> At least 8 road trips. SEE comments above.

> Give up French fries. So far, so good.

> Get a DNA report from Ancestry.com. I've sent in my DNA sample. Now I'm awaiting the results.

> Do my PT exercises at least once a week. I've really sloughed off. I only did them once while we were in TX, & I only did them once in Minnesota. I need to get serious about them.

> Avoid useless FB comments. It's been a challenge, but I think I've managed pretty well so far. And if I post something political from National Review Online or Townhall, & people take exception, I just have to refrain from responding their specious arguments.

> Add to our National Park & bucket lists. We visited San Antonio last month, which was on our bucket list. [I'd been there before; Lois hadn't.] Hopefully, it will work out for us to visit the Everglades while we're in FL. Hopefully, it will work out for us to visit Yosemite, King's Canyon, & Sequoia while we're in CA.