Preface -- Porch sofas -- Off to college : a parental spreadsheet -- School starts this morning -- We want to go back, too -- In praise of small-town football -- Conflicted -- Autumn golf -- An open letter to the city of Hopkins -- Hudson's Bay blankets -- Splitting wood -- The menu changes -- Good autumn reads -- Darn Packers fans -- Election night radio -- No-bleeping-vember -- Thanksgiving road game -- A Thanksgiving lesson -- An amusing pastime --

North country fashion statement -- Winter wimps -- Together again for the holidays -- Sulking in a winter wonderland -- A Christmas shopping memory -- Alas, poor Taurus -- Dog days in the ice fishing shack -- The inscrutable Finn -- Crows -- Real world Valentine's Day -- A timeless saga -- Split-level shack-whacky -- Contemplating gutter gloves -- Thinking ill of the literate -- Jogging again -- Talk about your golf drives -- Cooking with grandma --

Are you with us? or are you one of them? -- Planting corn -- A little frugality, por favor -- Lilac season -- Meditation on a green minivan -- They're back -- What's the rush? -- A tiny discrepancy -- Is ambivalence the perfect Father's Day gift? -- Tacky, tacky, tacky -- People watching at Lake Calhoun -- Little League. Big problem -- Thanks, Mom -- Meditation on a lawnmower -- A Minnesota must -- On finding a bungee cord -- In praise of municipal golf -- Who turned on the air conditioning? -- Homegrown tomatoes -- Still going out for the team -- Start the state fair without me -- A fifties flashback -- Acorns and Toyotas -- 4 sale.