Popular Fallacies: That the Worst Puns are the Best

British essayist Charles Lamb and I would have probably never seen eye-to-eye on this one! Had we ever met (which is unlikely in the extreme as he died 128 years before I was born) he would have immediately found that I am a great aficionado of puns. The title of this entry comes from the title of an essay he wrote in 1833. I must say, I do not agree that his statement is a fallacy. The best puns are the worst!

Among the gang of friends with whom I hang-around, Halloween is a big event. Partly because we can party and hang-out, partly because we get to dress-up, but mostly because we drink! No, just kidding. It is the socializing that is important. At least as important as the booze.

It has been my practice since moving to Colorado to wear a Visual pun to the Halloween party. Most of them have been pretty good. Here is a list of the costumes I have worn in chronological order since my stretch of puns has started.

1996 - I stuck a bunch of small boxes of cereal (the individual serving kind from the Kellogg's Snack Pack) all over myself with a plastic knife sticking into some of them (with blood dripping from the knives), bullet holes in a couple others, and a few hung from nooses.

1997 - I was at a station this year but I wore a rubber band around my head with a bit of crepe paper stretching from it to the ground.

1998 - I had a sheet that I draped over myself, eye holes had been cut-out and a black "Lone Ranger" mask was glued over the face. The word "Costume" was stencilled in black across the front and a UPC code and the words "1 Halloween Costume" were stencilled on the back.

1999 - I wore a bull's eye dart board on my front and my back.

2000 - I wore a sheet with the daily puzzle from the paper drawn on it. I carried the clues on a piece of poster board with me and let people try and solve the puzzle with a sharpie. If they asked any questions I was really surly to them.

2001 - I carried a couple lengths of cloth, a measuring tape and a but of curtain cord. When people asked what I was I said that I was still working on it. (This was fun because people gave me suggestions all night long!) half way through the party I went to a private room, wrapped one bit of the cloth around my head like a turban and the other I draped over me and tied-off with the curtain cord like a robe and announced that I had decided to be a Swami.

2002 - I wore a bunch of pictures of people named "Arthur." Art Garfunkle, Arthur Treacher (of the Fish 'n Chips Restaurants), Dr. Art Ulean, Arthur Miller, etc. All these pictures were stapled to various places all over the sheet I had draped over me.

2003 - I made large bar magnet out of foam and fabric. It was a big red box with silver ends that had "N" written on one end and "S" on the other. Glued to either end (and a couple to the middle) more-or-less at random were a bunch of little baby chickens.

2004 - I wore old, soiled, damaged clothing, carried a bundle on the end of a stick, didn't shave, had a red cape and had a big "S" in a diamond-shaped insignia on both my chest and my cape.

2005 - This year (pictured above) I chained a huge playing card (the queen of hearts) to my belt so that as I moved around it dragged behind me.

I am writing an intervening paragraph to let you think of what the puns are. I once had to write "A Pun Is The Lowest Form of Humor" a hundred times. My one hundred and first line on that assignment was "...no, it isn't..."

Oliver Wendell Holmes is wrote that "People who make puns are like wanton boys that put coppers on the railroad tracks. They amuse themselves and other children, but their little trick may upset a freight train of conversation for the sake of a battered witticism." This, I think sounds more like me!

The Puns From the Above-Mentioned Costumes:

1996 - Cereal Killer

1997 - Bookmark

1998 - Generic Costume

1999 - Moving Target

2000 - I was a "Cross" Word Puzzle

2001 - The World's Worst Procrastinator

2002 - Traveling Art Collection

2003 - Chick Magnet

2004 - Supertramp

2005 - Drag Queen

I hope that you have a happy Halloween!

Don Bergquist - 30-October-2005 - Lakewood, Colorado

Not A Lot To Report This Weekend

I have had quite a busy weekend, but there is very little to report.

I can feel that the winter is coming on. Not because it is cold or anything, actually, it is rather nice outside. I checked the thermometer and reset it before coming upstairs tonight and the high today on my deck was 75-degrees. When I rolled out of bed on yesterday morning, I knew that I had lots to do and only a couple days to do it so I got an early start.

I started with two major projects on my to-do list and about half-a-dozen little things. I am happy to report that I am mostly finished. Both the big jobs are done and there are only a couple of the minor ones left to do.

So, what has kept me out of the lovely weekend outside?

Well, my first big project was to start a major fall cleaning. Yesterday morning, I opened every window, and cleaned them inside and out, removed the window screens, cleaned them and replaced them. I even got out the Carpet Shampooer and cleaned the upstairs carpets. Today's big project was to re-design the utility room.

Anyone who has been to my place (or heard tales of it) knows it is pretty compact. This is a plus when it is time for my Spring and Fall cleaning and a big minus when it is time to try and figure out where everything should be placed. The utility room/laundry room/pantry was a prime example of what I mean by this.

A square room just under seven feet on a side, the room sits just beyond the kitchen. The HVAC and water heater take-up the eastern third of the room and the washer/dryer took up the western third. The end of the room furthest from the door had a bookcase with all my cookbooks on it, and there were some dark cabinets over the laundry machines.

That's what I started with. The problem was that it was dark, cluttered and had a claustrophobic feel. The first thing I did was empty the room and rip out the cabinets. I then stacked the dryer on the top of the washer (the machines were designed to be stacked, but the cabinets prevented me from doing it) and pushed them to the far wall. The book case of Cookbooks moved to the western wall (in front of the dryer duct) and a set of open white shelves went up against the walk behind and above it.

Although I now have about the same amount of shelf space, all of it is usable. The room feels a lot bigger as you walk into it. The best enhancement I made to the room is the simplest one and the one I like the best.

I installed brackets at the top of the room just either side of the door and hung a closet rod between them. I now have some place to hang clothing straight out of the drier so that I do not have to carry them all over the house looking for a place to lay them and hang them up!

I made a couple trips to Goodwill today to drop off some old clothing I no longer wear as well as some stuff that had been cluttering my utility room. Miscellaneous kitchen stuff that I never use. All-in-all a very productive day.

I hope that your day was productive!

Don Bergquist - 23-October-2005 - Lakewood, Colorado

Request for Family Information

Greetings to all family members be they Bergquist, Johnson, Korkowski, or some other branch I have unfortunately forgotten!

With the end of the year rapidly approaching, (and with a little spare time on my hands) it is getting time for me to think about the annual ritual of trying to get holiday greetings out. This used to be aided by the use of Flo's directory of the family that she maintained manually (on paper with many edits and crossings-out) until the sheet became to arduous to maintain.

A couple years back I attempted to automate the maintenance of the "Flo Sheet" as we called it affectionately, but my knowledge of the tool that I attempted to write it in was not up to snuff. Sadly, this meant that the sheet has become so out of date as to make it unusable.

This year, in preparation for the holidays, I would like to re-start the maintenance of the "Flo Sheet." To this end, I need input. If all the relatives could please email me (at: Don.Denver@gmail.com) I would be happy to enter names, addresses, email, web sites, birthdays, anniversaries, family relationships, and other important information into a database so that we can share it either via email or via hardcopy sent to you via the mail.

In the interest of privacy (because I do not have a secured website to which to post it) this information will not be posted to the web.

If you are interested in being included in the list, please email me with the information you want to share. I hope to get this information collected by Halloween and get a sheet published and posted to everyone by the first week in November.

Thanks and have a great day!

Don Bergquist - 20-October-2005 - Lakewood, Colorado

Mira, Pappi! Mira!

One of my most persistent memories of Zayer's Pool in Village Green was the one time that I rode my bike up there to go swimming and the entire time this little Cuban Bow was screaming "Mira, Pappi! Mira!" (Sorry, I do not have the upside-down exclamation point that should be at the front of these imperatives.)

The kid would then do something so incredibly lame (like dunking under) at which point the kid's dad would go back to his book and the kid would start screaming again.

I have been thinking of this today because as soon as I got home I finished the last of the stuff that needed to be finished after my trip. Saga, could she talk, would be screaming "Mira, Pappi!" at me constantly. She is so needy now that we are back home. It will take her a couple days to get used to being alone all day again.

Saga has been incredibly clingy. As a matter of fact, she is sitting at my side right now demanding my attention.

I hope you are having a great day!

Don Bergquist - 19-October-2005 - Lakewood, Colorado

Language Lesson

Mira, Pappi!

This is spanish for "Look, Daddy!"

It is only understood if it is screamed at your father repeatedly and at the top of your lungs.

Don Bergquist - 19-October-2005 - Lakewood, Colorado

Back in the Swing

Today was a long day! Perhaps not quite as long as driving fourteen hours the other day to get home from Minnesota, but long none-the-less!

I was up extra early this morning because I wanted to get a jump on getting caught-up on my email at the office so I headed in and was at my desk by 06:00. After getting the backlog opened, read, prioritized and marked for follow-up, I started getting the backlog of requests to update my team's communications portal updated.

Luckily, I got all that finished in time to head out a couple hours early and get some of the detritus from my trip cleared out of the living room and dining room before my sister-in-law visited.

We had a nice visit. I printed some pictures that she wanted and got her on her way to her hotel in the Colorado Springs area. I guess I should be spending some more time getting back into the routine before I sit down and write more blog entries. That is what I will do!

I hope you have had a great day today!

Don Bergquist - 18-October-2005 - Lakewood, Colorado

Newly Scanned Pictures

One of the things I love about visiting my parents (as if the thrill of seeing them and anyone else I get to see in Minnesota is not enough) is that I get to paw through the box of old photographs that seems to perpetually replenish itself with old, half-remembered photos that I have not seen in years and the occasional nugget that I have never seen.

The link above will take you to an album of a few of the new photos that I found this time. A couple of them predate me. (Like the one of my grandparents and their group visiting the Red Rocks Amphitheatre in 1960. A couple I can vaguely Remember. (Like one of my mom with Grandma, Aunt Tina and Uncle Martin at Disney World. I think this may have been back when we first visited it in the early seventies. Back when the phrase "E-Ticket Ride" had a contemporaneous meaning. Everyone who has ever used an E-Ticket to get onto an E-Ticket Ride, give yourself a point!)
I hope you have a fighting chance to find some old pictures that bring back memories for you today!

Don Bergquist - 17-October-2005 - Lakewood, Colorado

Driving Home

04:45 Central Time

Without the use of an alarm clock this morning, I got up and finished packing the remainder of my stuff in the car. After a quick cup of coffee (and one more for the road) I hugged everyone good bye and headed west. The Weather Channel shows nothing ahead of me but about 900 miles of clear skies and dry roads.

Just west of Morris, Minnesota I noticed the moon setting and thought it would make a good picture. I am now more certain than ever that I need to upgrade to an SLR digital camera. I miss my 400 mm lens! This is the best definition I can get with the lens built into my camera.

07:30 Central Time

In retrospect, I am not certain that the back way (the long way through Morris) is any better or worse than the way that I normally take. It did make it possible for me to get the sunrise over the trees in this field. The driving is going well and there is nobody else on the road to slow me down. I expect that I should be in Sioux Falls before too much longer.

Saga is snoring in the back seat and I guess that means that she will be of no trouble to me for this trip either. I have the books on tape playing and am really into the story I am listening to. I am currently listening to Double Whammy by Carl Hiaasen. Good book!

18:06 Mountain Time

It has been a great day of driving! I made it through Sioux Falls in record time and am well into Colorado by now. I loved the book. I have also listened to a book by David Sedaris today and am currently listening to The Book on Bush. I just looked in the read-view mirror and noticed that the moon is rising.

I took this shot by rolling-down the window and aiming the camera at the side mirror. The shot came out surprisingly well. Ahead of me, the sun is setting over the Rocky Mountains. What a gorgeous day! I count myself as exceedingly lucky that I get to live here!

I am beginning to get a bit tired. I think that I will take the short way - through town - to get home.

19:50 Mountain Time

In retrospect, I suppose I should have taken the long way. This is the problem with not being a sports fan. It never occurred to me to turn on my radio to the channel that carries all the sports.

Apparently the Broncos were playing tonight. It took me well over an hour to get through town because of all the people leaving the stadium. Oh well, all-in-all it was still quite a nice drive today! I am now home. All the stuff from the car is sitting in a pile in the living room. That is for tomorrow to worry about.

I hope your day has been filled with clear roads and good weather!

Don Bergquist - 16-October-2005 - Lakewood, Colorado

Time to Make the Horseradish!

Horseradish has been used over the centuries as an aphrodisiac, a treatment for rheumatism, a bitter herb for Passover seders and a flavorful accompaniment for beef, chicken and seafood.

More recently, my family has used it as an excuse to get together for a day in the fall.

Apparently, according to the Horseradish institute (yes, there is one - everything has an institute), horseradish has been around since early in Egyptian society. The first step in making horseradish is to dig the roots out of the ground. Or, as we see here, to dig the roots while Uncle Dick supervises.

Then comes the fun part. We all sit around a table out on the lawn with a posse of paring knives and peel the horseradish. Some of the roots get a bit long and stringy, but that is the fun, to grab the good ones ahead of everyone else and see who can peel the most.

This, as all family occasions, is accompanied with liberal doses of chit-chat, gossip, and reminiscence.

Do you remember the time that Don...

Once the roots are peeled and washed, it is time to grind. This year I brought the food processor with me. It was no problem keeping up with the pealing table.

We started with a couple people shoving the roots through an old style grinder but it soon became apparent that my Kitchenaide could easily keep up with the pace set by the pealing table so we left the grinder alone and processed it all.

By early afternoon we had gallons of horseradish pickled and ready to bag and freeze.

Yum! Horseradish. I cannot wait to get home and make a roast!

Of course, there was also plenty of coffee, lunch to eat any time you felt hungry, and a bottle of schnapps to pass. (Well this is, after all, Minnesota!)

Once the production was done, it was time for pictures and cards. It is obligatory that whenever my dad's generation has quorum, they take a "Siblings" picture. The picture at right is one that I took of them standing on the dock out on the lake. I almost broke my neck trying to get to a place I could get this shot, but I think it was worth it.

Not to be out-done by the fogeys, my brothers and I decided that we should also have a "Siblings" picture.

Interestingly, Chip is actually the tallest of us and Denis the shortest. I guess we were just in a mood to goof around.

After the pictures, there was time for some cards, whist and cribbage mostly, and then everyone went off their own ways. What a fun day! We have, however, been running all day long and I am sure that it will be an early night!

I hope that your day was filled with as many wonderful memories!

Don Bergquist - 15-October-2005 - Kensington, Minnesota

A Walk in the Woods

On such a wonderful fall day as this what can one expect to do when visiting Dad and Flo?

Well, as mentioned yesterday there is the ever-popular walk down the drive to get the mail. Today we all donned our jackets and made the trek through the woods to the highway to check the mailbox. The colors were lovely and the lighting was perfect.

It really wasn't as cold as you might think (notice the jackets that Denis and I are wearing) but being that this was Autumn and we were in Minnesota, I thought that it would lend a look of seasonality to the picture. Denis wore his because he was cold.

The Walk was pleasant, the temperatures mild, the conversation lively and the colors, although a bit past their peak, still vivid. Who could ask for anything more?

Our Hostess and Host for this lovely long weekend (short week) stay posed for a portrait on the walk. Since this one came out so well, I decided that we need to have one of the whole group. It's too bad I didn't bring a tripod or I could have made it into the picture as well.

Oh well... Live and Learn!

Aside from the walk, today was made in making preparations for the big event tomorrow. We are expecting a huge contingent of the relatives within a respectable radius to appear and assist with making horseradish!

This preparatory time, of course, left us time to plan what needed to be done across a cribbage board.

This is what I love about this place! It is fun to be here and to spend time with family. Speaking of family, Chip and Eric arrive tonight! I cannot wait.

I hope that today started with something you were looking forward to end ended with a pleasant surprise!

Don Bergquist - 14-October-2005 - Kensington, Minnesota

A Fine Fall Day

One might imagine that just having driven over 900 miles yesterday, the last thing I would want to do today would be to go and get into the car and drive some more. One might, but one would be wrong!

There are just some things you have to do when you visit Rancho Bergquist. If you're a grandchild of the residents of the household, you can count on Grand-Dad having a task or two that needs doing and that he would love to have your assistance with.

If you're of my generation, you can help with these tasks (and surely will get conscripted if you can think of nothing more pressing that needs your attention. This time, Denis and I needed to get into Miltona to go to the locker and pick-up our orders for dogs and sausages to carry back with us.

When we returned, the back yard was all raked and the leaves were in the compost pile. (Gee, figure that!)

Later in the afternoon, we took our daily pilgrimage to the end of the drive to get the mail. Dad and Flo live ad the end of a nice little dirt road that cuts through the woods that surround their property so it is a good walk to do each day.

Coming home we cut across the lawn to go into Dad's vineyard. The grapes look luscious and ready to pick or to render into wine!

(What did the grape say when the elephant stepped on it? - Nothing, it just let out a little wine!)

I hope that you've been able to fill your day with the things you need to do.

Don Bergquist - 13-October-2005 - Kensington, Minnesota

Driving to Minnesota

The storm now passed and headed south and east I decided it was time to get the dog and my stuff back into the car and head out to Dad and Flo's for the festivities.

I actually left at what I like to call "Butt-Ugly-Early o'clock" and headed east. Saga and I made great time. She pretty much slept the entire trip.

I could not believe the time I made. The roads were dry and clear. Even where the ice and snow made driving treacherous only yesterday; today it was smooth sailing. I saw the remains of the wreck that killed two people at Keenesburg, but that was all that was left to show of the storm. The conditions today were completely different!

With stops only in North Platte, Nebraska to top off the tank before heading cross-country from I-80 to I-90 and a quick breakfast burrito from Sonic, I kept racing through the early morning.

My early morning was spent driving through the darkness in Colorado with the sunrise (see the picture above) occurring just before I crossed into Nebraska. I am not going to say where the above picture was taken... (It may have been taken in a place that it was perfectly legal to be going this fast - you don't know) ... I include it at this point to show off the 44 mpg that I was getting at this point and because my entire trip was basically run at about this speed!

The morning continued to be clear and smooth sailing as I headed north toward Murdo, South Dakota. I love the gently rolling topography of Western Nebraska/South Dakota. I guess it is time for me to expand my collection of Road-side geography tomes. I want to learn more about the reason these states look the way they do.

The only inclement weather I actually had to drive through was fog it was a bit foggy but once I turned north, it cleared-up PDQ.

As the afternoon wore on, I noticed that I was being followed. Looking more closely at it, I realized that this guy had been following me all day long. I saw him this morning in my rear-view mirror, then later, as I drove north, he pulled along my left side and paced me for almost the entire trip into Murdo. I saw him occasionally tailing me through South Dakota, and then he pulled alongside me to my right as I drove north out of Sioux Falls.

Just before turning west for the final leg of my journey into Minnesota, the skies to the west clouded over with an approaching front. There was no rain from the system, but there certainly was a nice skyscape for the later part of the afternoon.

As I said, the day was pretty uneventful. Other than the bio-breaks periodically (a few for me, a few of Saga) and the obligatory stop for gasoline at North Platte, Nebraska and then again in Chamberlain, South Dakota, we cruised for the entire day at about eighty miles-per-hour and accomplished the trip in just under thirteen hours of driving.

I hope your day was passed as pleasantly!

Don Bergquist - 12-October-2005 - Kensington, Minnesota

Aftermath

The worst of the storm is passed. The remains are some light flurries this morning, some drizzles across the plains, and freezing temperatures.

I think that I made the correct decision to not head to Minnesota during this. The one traffic fatality of the storm was a crash on I-76 (which I would have been taking) caused either by the road conditions, the strong blowing snow causing white-out, or a combination thereof. It is not clear from the stories.

This morning it was still spitting snow when I left for work. There is a heavy overcast that is supposed to dissipate as the day goes along. I may look at the conditions later and take a long weekend. I haven't decided.

The positive aftermath is that just under the cloud deck you can see that the mountains are cloaked in a new, fresh, white blanket. The ski resorts here are all very optimistic for an early opening.

I hope that your day is beautiful!

Don Bergquist - 11-October-2005 - Denver, Colorado

...Snow by Tomorrow Afternoon...

Well, I guess that blizzard conditions by morning can be considered as snow by the afternoon!

What you are almost seeing is Broadway in downtown Denver, Colorado as seen from my office when I arrived this morning.

Normally, the window that I am shooting from would have a spectacular panoramic view of the downtown area, the Platte River, Cherry Creek, the foothills, the Front Range, all the way down to Pikes Peak in the distant south. (Unless it is a day when "The Brown Cloud" is clinging to the city.)

Today you can barely make out the world trade center towers rising on the right edge of the picture and the Colorado Bank Building at the left.

There are schools running on delayed schedule all over the metropolitan Denver area and some of the local counties have gone on winter accident alert status. (This last means that they are having so many calls of weather-related accident that the normal "don't leave the scene until the police arrive" rule does not, necessarily apply. As long as drugs and alcohol are not involved, exchange info, take pictures, what-ever, and call the police within 72 hours.)

It is not looking good for my trip to Minnesota this afternoon. Colorado Department of Transportation has put out winter driving advisories for the entire metropolitan area and the conditions on their website for I-76 shows wet, slushy, and snow-covered roads all the way into Nebraska. This weather system shows on the map and satellite images as extending all the way to Lincoln so I am pretty sure that it is too late to get out in front of it. I prefer to err on the side of caution so unless things change drastically by the time it is time for me to leave; I believe I will be staying put this week.

I hope that your conditions are bright and sunny and the pavement before you is clear and dry!

Don Bergquist - 10-October-2005 - Denver, Colorado

What a Difference a Day Makes!

The Indian Summer has passed.

Whereas yesterday was a lovely, warm, sunny day with perfect, azure skies; today is cold, gray, and drizzly. The lovely weather of the past week seems to have left us. (possibly for the season.) The temperatures have dropped from being in the mid-seventies to being in the low-thirties. Yesterday I scampered about in the mountains sans jacket, today I am wondering where my gloves are.

The weather man on channel seven this morning said that this was part of a front that is expected to bring us snow by tomorrow afternoon. Hopefully the weather will hold until I get on the road headed to Dad's place tomorrow.

The good part about the bad weather is that it takes away the urge to go and spend the day farting around outside. I have four loads of laundry that I must do before I leave tomorrow afternoon and then I have to pack the car so I guess I will post this and get it moving.

I hope that you have a day that is conducive to being productive.

Don Bergquist - 09-October-2005 - Lakewood, Colorado

Indian Summer

There are days when I have no doubt what the best thing about living in Colorado is. It truly is a lovely place to live!

A friend of mine from the office I have spent so much time at for the last year was over here on business last week. He had a day off before his trip back to the UK and I had the time to spare so I took Bala on one of my favorite drives in Colorado. It was, perhaps, the last good weekend in Colorado to see the fall colors.

We drove from Colorado Springs, through Deckers up to Red Rocks and back to the Springs. The weather was absolutely perfect. We had a bit of an Indian Summer following the cold snap. The weather has been lovely with temperatures in the seventies and eighties.

I hope that your day has presented you with lots of things to love about your life!

Don Bergquist - 08-October-2005 - Lakewood, Colorado

First Freeze

Gather leaves and grasses,

Love, to-day;

For the Autumn passes

Soon away.

Chilling winds are blowing.

It will soon be snowing.

From: Gather Leaves and Grasses.

by John Henry Bonner

With the autumn little over two weeks old, it seems that winter is soon to make its presence known in Colorado.

Two days ago I was still wearing Hawaiian shirts to the office, the temperatures at sunrise still well into the seventies. This morning the low temperature reported at the airport was twenty-one degrees. It is usually cooler at my place up in Bear Valley in the summer and slightly warmer in the summer.

Downtown, however is another matter. The thermometer on the bank up the road read fifteen when I passed it. I guess that my morning glories will soon be only frozen dead memories.

The best of the autumn color has passed and they are predicting the first snowfall to happen early next week.

Luckily, I will be in Minnesota on vacation when it hits. It is the autumn. The day is shrinking by a few minutes daily here and the nights are getting colder.

But this is not a sad time. There are lots of good things about the autumn. One of the good things about this time of year, though, is that it is once again time to start making soups and stews! It is also the time of year that my energy bill shrinks; no need to cool my home, and it is not yet cold enough to need heat. I get to sleep under my thick down comforter. Quilts go back onto the bed.

Soon, we'll have ghosts and goblins appearing looking for candy to appease them. I love this time of the year.

I hope your days are bright (if short) and full of things you love!

Don Bergquist - 07-October-2005 - Lakewood, Colorado

Birthday Greetings, Baby Brother!

Monday's child is fair of face,
Tuesday's child is full of grace,
Wednesday's child is full of woe,
Thursday's child has far to go,
Friday's child is loving and giving,
Saturday's child works hard for its living.
But the child that is born on the Sabbath Day
Is bonny, and blithe, and good, and gay.

Tuesday October 05, 1965 was the day that my brother Chip graced us with his presence.

Like many children, Chip was inquisitive, enjoyed exploring, and was generally a pain in the kiester. The real problem was that Chip displaced me from my place as the baby of the family and relegated me to the role of "middle child" much as I had done to my elder brother, Denis, only three years earlier. The main difference was that Chip will hold-on to that distinction for the rest of his life.

I'm not too sure about the "...full of grace..." part of the poen. Sure, he's not a complete klutz, but he is the only one of us to nearly sever his foot with an item he has dropped. Chip was a cute kid, though.

As a child, Chip was more than able to get by on his charm. He had everyone looking out for him and wanting to take care of him.

I guess that the fact that Chip is now a father and his son is a little carbon copy of him means that there is something to the curse that Mom used to shriek at us all the time: "One day you are going to have a child just like you!" Although in Chip's case I am not sure that this is a bad thing.

One story of Chip's childhood to give his son Eric ideas:

One day Mom let Chip and Me take the bus to the movie theatre to see some film that we wanted to see. Chip had the brilliant idea to bring a handful of chocolate chips to eat at the movie. Except that this was Miami and in the summer, it was a good idea. Chip had a hand-full of chocolate and the attention of everyone on the bus all the way to the theatre!

I hope you have a great birthday, baby bro!

Don Bergquist - 05- October-2005 - Denver, Colorado

Once again my plans go awry!

Well, I've said it before... I should just not bother making plans.

I made it to one of my two Friday night parties. It lasted much longer than I had thought and with all the wonderful office gossip to catch-up on, I decided it was best for me to stay. I did not leave until it was far to late to go and join the second party of the evening.

Saturday I spend mostly doing chores around the house (on the theory that Sunday would be the better of the two days to drive anyway) and got a lot of the "get the house ready for fall" type things done. The problem is that the things I needed to complete easily overflowed into Sunday and there was always more that needed to get done.

Needless to say, no pictures from the weekend.

The weather man has said the dreaded four-letter winter word: "Snow" again this morning... It is in the eighties today but supposed to be in the thirties tomorrow. Brrr!

I hope you had a pleasant weekend and that your weather holds as long as possible!

Don Bergquist - 03-October-2005 - Denver, Colorado