It is the weekend. The parents are still not here. They finally left Bemidji at 4 p.m. and then pulled over to spend the night in Little Falls. Last I heard they were having a late dinner at the Perkins. When my mother’s sisters left their native Wisconsin for good and settled in California, both of them said the things they miss most are the good, old-fashioned Midwestern thunderstorms.

That was a rash of rain we had here in St. Paul last night. The wind was whipping and a branch hit my car and then we headed into the basement for a spell.

The teen boy is going to a fall dance tonight. He’ll have two or three of his buddies over for pre-dance warmups: brats on the grill, a little X-Box competition, plenty of Axe. So much Axe, in fact, that grandpa will have to take a step back once he reaches the upstairs bathroom, because those excited teens will have layered their cheap cologne the way Estee Lauder wants us all to do: body wash, deodorant, body spray, a little matching hair gel—the Axe Effect.

We’re all going to the Minnesota v. Purdue football game at the Dome Saturday night. NOT because we are in any way Tim Brewster fans but because college daughter and her crew team are being honored between the third and fourth quarters for their 2007 Big Ten Rowing Championship. They should be getting their rings in the ceremony but they’ve been held up at the manufacturer so maybe they’ll get cigar bands instead. You know how opposing team fans bring newspapers to read out in the stands when the other team has possession, hiding their heads behind their open newspapers, acting all disinterested? Well, unless the Gophers have come up with an exciting and new game plan, a few of us in our family will be bringing newspapers for real, reading all the sections carefully—the real estate ads for 55-and-over apartments, the new movie reviews, ALL the letters to the editors. And then someone will nudge the other right at the end of the third quarter and we’ll all sit up at attention and cheer on the college kid with pride.