The lovely Miller girls

For several years now, I've referred to niece Hannah Miller as Hannah Manhattana, knowing she would go far on her brains and beauty. So, check this out, cousins! ... Does that model princessa look familiar? Yep, it's 17-year-old Hannah, your proud scrapblog editor's niece and daughter of Chris and Mary Miller, starring in a prom-products ad. Check out the full online ad here.

In 2007, your scrapblog editor took nieces Hannah and Moriah to Manhattan for a little vacation, and while there took to closely trotting along behind the lovely Miller nieces with a ready scowl and overlarge purse ready to whack any fella with an over-admiring glance, and there were many (speaking of which, that fella in the prom-products ad is awfully ardent; we might have to whack HIM with our overlarge purse). It was only a matter of time before one of them became a model! Speaking of their beauty...

... here's an added photo of niece Moriah, Hannah's sister, competing in this past weekend's Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference pentathlon competition in St. Cloud, Minn. Not only can she fly, she's lovely and witty.

Watch out for that hole in the ice!

Joe and Mavis took this impressive photo of Lake Pepin from the picnic area at Old Frontenac State Park. The little specks are fish houses and cars. You may also note a mysterious hole in the ice, made by a pickup that went through over the weekend. Luckily, its owners did not go down with it. No doubt the ice is getting even mushier this week, what with temperatures getting a little milder.

I believe she can fly

Radiant Moriah Miller, competing for Minnesota State University Mankato, did real well in this past weekend's Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference pentathlon competition in St. Cloud, Minn. For more info, go here. We're proud of you, flyin' Mo!

Katie's game

Middle-aged cousin Chris Miller and youthful cousin Katie Hagberg, daughter of Ted and Jane, have something in common -- they're both awesome at Twitter, the social media tool that's hot in the United States and facilitating revolutions elsewhere, like Egypt. Cousin Sam Broberg is also very adept at Twitter. (Digression: Your scrapbook editor loves blogging and Facebook, but pretty much bombs at Twitter, despite being encouraged to use it for work.) Recently both CMill and Katie tweeted about a big basketball game Katie was part of at her East Ridge High School in Woodbury. Then they both posted photos on Facebook. A couple of them we swiped for the blog: Katie with her proud grandparents after the game.

Katie with two of her biggest (and smallest) fans, Elizabeth Miller, 7, and shy Avamarie Miller, 2.

Some sort of football game, somewhere

Two football teams, the Slackers and the Peelers, we think they're called, played some sort of big-time game recently, we hear. One of them -- OK, it was the Green Bay Packers -- won! Among the fans of those Super Bowl champs was cousin Monty Leiser, of Eau Claire, Wis., and his lovely girlfriend, Elizabeth. Eat your heart out, Brett Favre!

Lucille and the very fine baked bluegills

Your scrapblog editor is a vegetarian, with the recent exception of fish she or Uncle Joe catches. Have come up with a pretty good recipe for baked bluegills, the one Lake Pepin fish that doesn't taste, well, muddy-fishy. Look who else likes the recipe -- 15-year-old cat Lucy, who I like to give a crumb or two after dinner. Lucy, a very dignified feline, has good taste in all things.

Books we like to mark

One thing your scrapblog editor likes even better than newspapers is (are?) books. As you've seen, I've already crowed several times about my old pal Laurie Hertzel's 2010 memoir "News to Me: Adventures of an Accidental Journalist." Here are two other recent books I've had the privilege to have a small hand in:

"Manhood From the Hood" is a self-published memoir by Bill Roddy, who operates a Twin Cities nonprofit that helps young people from poorer neighborhoods learn how to be entrepreneurs. I did some editing on Bill's book, which chronicles his hardscrabble childhood in Chicago and the values he learned from his grandfather that helped him forge his path in life.

I took this photo of Bill and his wife, Gail Roddy, at their recent book launch party in Eden Prairie. They are lovely and gracious friends.

Here's another recent book whose author I'm proud to know. Jamie Lorentzen, along with his wife, Jane, are dear friends who live in Old Frontenac, Minn. Jamie, in addition to being a delightful and humorous person (relatives may remember him as the eloquent eulogist at Mom's funeral), is a Kierkegaard scholar. Jamie thanks me in this book's acknowledgments, but I really didn't have anything to do with it other than to tell him over a beer at Bronk's in Lake City that it was an awesome idea and that he's an awesome dude.

Here's a Red Wing Republican Eagle photo of Jamie before his commencement address to the Class of '10 at Red Wing (Minn.) High School, where he teaches English and is extremely popular. That Jamie! He's brilliant and hilarious, an excellent combination.

Beware of brothers bearing BlackBerries

Too bad we don't have audio for this one. Your scrapblog editor was over at brother Chris' desk in the Star Tribune newsroom sharing some family gossip when who shows up but Sid Hartman, The Great One. He said, and I quote, somewhat accurately: "Look at this! Here we have two Millers, both from the same mother! One of them is just ... TERRIBLE. And the other one is just ... WONDERFUL." Of course Chris whipped out his BlackBerry to record the moment. Despite being the wonderful one (obviously), your scrapblog editor thinks ol' Sid should be kinder to CMill, who bears with him for SidCast every week at www.startribune.com.

A blog we like

We're happy to see that lovely, articulate cousin Tanya Cook, mother of Perrin, Sonya and shy Maria; wife of Levi; daughter of Cyndi Sprick O'Donohoe and granddaughter of Elmer and Mavis Sprick, has launched her own thoughtful blog. Tanya and her lovely family now live in Denver. You can find her blog at: http://heavymetalbeautymom.blogspot.com/ Write on, Tanya!