yeaw you betch'a

It's really no joke. There are varying levels of minnesota talk but its quite entertaining and I realize this probably only from living away from here. I enjoy going to stores and talking to the cashiers because its fun to hear them say oh hi! how are you tOday? and re-live all the little sayings. one of my favorites from a best friend's mom: OOh but fun! Here are some more: OOh suure, OOh yeaw, well ya knOw. As i write this i find that its maybe too hard to pass on the sounds of these words to make this worthwhile...

So I'll move on to one of my favorite sights since i've been back:

• Today I saw a man with a flannel shirt on, walking down the road carrying a metal cage. I was approaching him as I was driving being very curious. As I drive by I see a grey squirrel pacing back and forth in the cage. WHAT?! was my reaction. I was so shocked and amused that I hurried back to my parents house (the direction the man was walking) to park the car, get out and hoped to get a picture. I got one - but unfortunately he entered the woods across from the house and the tall grasses hid the cage with the squirrel. So i have a pic from far away of the man but no squirrel in the cage. I am a bit saddened. What do you suppose the squirrel was - a pet or dinner?