By MARY JANE SMETANKA, Minneapolis Star Tribune

Some late-night munchies sounded good, so the Edina, Minn., resident began boiling a pot of rice on the stove after midnight and then "lost track of time."

Twenty minutes later, flames were licking the kitchen cabinets above the stove.

Elizabeth Everingham's 1851 letter is brown with age and tattered along the folds. But the black ink has barely faded.

Army Sgt. Gwen Beberg isn't having an easy year in Iraq. When the Spring Lake Park, Minn. native bonded with an abandoned puppy found whimpering in a burning trash heap in Baghdad, she wanted to make sure the black-and-white mutt named Ratchet made it home with her.

Every evening, deer come out of the woods and knock the bird feeders outside Charlie Blair's office off their stands so they can eat sunflower seeds. A wild tom turkey has been hanging around, too, preening and attacking his reflection in the window.