Random Acts of Color

For some reason I could not get my phone to sync up with my computer when it came to photos last night, so I said "screw it" and didn't bother blogging. Now it somewhat works.

If you've read a few of my previous blogs you know this means I got to golf SentryWorld last night. I was subbing for friend on our other Marketing golf team who happens to be vacationing in Iceland. I'd like to say I was winning – but beautiful Iceland? I doubt it.

One fun hole was me saying, "Hey, there's my ball" and my partner saying, "I think that's a mushroom." Raise your driver if you would've thought the same thing!

At least on my drive home I knew all the COLOR credit went to God with some amazing sunset views en route home. Thanks!

Today's color palette was a surprise. I learned that someone I was loving on this weekend up north now has COVID.

So I swung by Walgreens on my way home to pick up a test. I didn't have symptoms but I had senior photo session this evening and we have an out-of-town wedding Friday. Thank the Lord it was negative. Because, well, I hate to miss out on anything!

I guess my random acts of color this week have truly been blessings!

Teeing Off the New Year

This morning was a bit of a rude awakening back into the land of the working. Had to get up to an unheard off alarm AND warm up my car before heading into work. 

And most of the day was spent reminding myself that today was Thursday and tomorrow is already a work-from-home Friday. 

Then there was the start of our company-sponsored golf tournament on Maui. 

I'm not bragging up any self-importance about this tournament, but I did put a lot of hours into writing content (social and otherwise) ahead of time. And now, many of my co-workers are on island and I am sort of "on call" in case they need something written from the Central Time Zone.

As usual, I'm a bit bummed about that. But I usually get a special gift or two from our team, so it somewhat balances out. Not completely, obviously, but since hubby and I have vacationed in that area in the recent past, at least I know what the experience is like!

And now, since the broadcast is on Hawaiian time, I better get to my recliner and oversee things. Or just watch enviable golf in a gorgeous location!

Hope you have time to tune into The Sentry sometime in the coming days!

Life's a Picnic, Right?

When you have a company picnic on your calendar for the day, REAL work sort of takes a back seat. I mean, I mean I gave it a pretty good 3 hours (kinda) of work from home so I could head up to Stevens Point for the fun.

Just me never missing an opportunity to do a PURPLE selfie!

Last year they had the picnic when I was having my Sister Weekend (well, Week) in the Smoky Mountains so I forgot how large-scale this was. As you can see by the way-finder sign, there was a lot 0going on!

One of my team mates and I hunkered down at the very entertaining BINGO area. It didn't take me long to win and, of course, I chose some golf balls as my prize. 

There was also a ton of stuff for kids – from inflatables/bounce houses to a petting zoo and pony rides. At some point, it began to rain so we were all inside the Fieldhouse. 

I got home, knowing that I also was going to race against rain clouds to take a few senior pictures. We did get sprinkled on.

Then we got poured on and raced to our cars. I might have to Photoshop out some raindrops on clothes, but I think we made it work!

I guess life is a picnic only when Mother Nature allows it. Good thing I'm on her side once in awhile!

Fantasy Island

Today kicked off my company's golf tournament on Maui. The Sentry – which airs on the Golf Channel at 6 p.m. (central) the next four evenings. 

In order to give us a sense that we were there – on island – we had an Aloha Thursday event today since most of us are working from home when Maui actually observes Aloha Friday.

So we had cake, of course, for all our company locations. And an opportunity to show our island spirit with Aloha Thursday.

We got cake whether we dressed up or not. But it was still fun to kind of "feel" the island spirit even if we weren't there.

In response to the many efforts to support Maui after their wildfires last fall, we had "Maui Strong" t-shirts for sale this week. Here's some of us posing for a picture that may or may not appear on the Golf Channel this weekend. (FYI: I'm in front just left of our security dog.)

There's a couple of things I'll get to smile about this weekend from a marketing standpoint – a commercial script I wrote and several social media posts. That's just my job, but it can really be fun sometimes!

For now let's just close our eyes and pretend we're on Fantasy Island – which in this case, is Maui.

ALOHA!

Spoiled with a Good Walk

Golf is not always a good walk spoiled. Sometimes we're spoiled with such a wonderful walk – or ride! 

First our team had a great walk around our work grounds yesterday morning. Our boss told us that instead of a meeting we had to do something that was NOT work. So several of our team walked our nature trail around the grounds and managed to get a nice team selfie in front of our building.

What a nice alternative to a meeting! I'll take that any day. I also spend time in nature last night taking senior photos up in Vesper and a few in Rapids. My computer mouse was dead by the time I looked at pictures so I skipped blogging.

Today was round two of beautiful walks around work. This time across the street at SentryWorld for the United Way fundraising golf scramble.

This is our foursome – Mister Mulligan and the Nice Misses – plus two of our co-workers who were volunteering at the event. It was a long day in the hot sun and it was awesome! So fun and we even finished 4 under par, which doesn't even compare to the groups finishing 12 under or so. Yeah, we were definitely in it to just have fun for a good cause.

And it's always a treat spending time on the gorgeous course. 

Especially hole 16, our famous Flower Hole with some 30,000 flowers planted around it. 

Tomorrow night is our regular league night there. For sure I won't finish anywhere near at or below par. But I'll still feel spoiled! 

Hope your week is going well! 

Can't Seem to Pardon the Interruption

When the temps rose just past the single digits today, it was a perfect excuse to stay in tonight. I mean we could have watched basketball in person, gone to dinner with the kids in person, or they could have gone out on the town in person.

But nope. We stayed in our bunker on Blue Jay Drive. In person.

And watched guys in Hawaii just to stay out of the bunkers on the golf course. 

For the record, we also watched the Assumption basketball game on TV since it was live streaming. And we had a nice dinner together. High recommended the fish fry from The Chatrbox. The 4 of us gave it 8 thumbs up!

So why we are we interested in prime time golf? A couple reasons beside staying in from the cold.

First this tournament is sponsored by my employer. And secondly, I wrote the script for this video that was televised right before the Golf Channel's interview with our CEO. So I was jazzed about that. I had Carter watch it just so he knows his mom is famous. Behind the scenes famous. But still famous. Ha.

And the third reason was that we needed the distraction. This has been the world's longest week – and I'm not quite ready to pardon the interruption of our lives. Interruption and disruption.

The Hedberg Hotline to Heaven (that what we're calling our family's prayer efforts this week) was busy again today as the two people we love and were praying hard for on Monday needed our attention. One was readmitted to the hospital and the other is undergoing another surgery (not 16 hours this time). So we're praying hard again that God helps the doctors use their skills to the best of their abilities to help these guys with their serious conditions.

 

I feel like the joy of Christmas was months ago already. We'll find joy again. And peace to go along with our hope.

And we'll guiltlessly use golf, basketball, or deep-fried food as a distraction.

Nice is Relative

It was a nice day today in central Wisconsin. Yes, the temperature was still below freezing. But there was no wind. Wind is to winter chills what humidity is to summer heat. No humidity is a perfect summer day. No wind in January means a pleasant walk outside – even with the lack of sunshine.

It was definitely trying to peek out when I went walking around the lake after work. Didn't last long, but yes, it was pretty nice. Until I got home and realized how nice the weather REALLY is ... in other places.

"Our" golf tournament started today. So it's traditional that the Golf Channel compare temps on Maui to those back in Stevens Point, where our home office is located. Even if we got up to freezing, we'd be still be 50 degrees colder.

Wish I was there! But with everything else in the past 9 months, numbers of actual people on the premises are pretty limited. I'd rather go when I can see players and shake hands and sneak hugs. (Ha – depends who's there!)

Instead we watch from our comfy recliners and spot our brand everywhere we can, ha. Hey, we marketing folks take pride in our work.

As a bonus, we're watching some great golf. The Sentry Tournament of Champions is a winners-only affair so these guys have to have won a PGA tournament this past year. Well, some exceptions due to the crazy year that 2020 was. 

So yeah, it's pretty cool. I will watch much more of it this weekend. Tonight I watched for an hour (TV coverage starts at 5 p.m.) and then went to shoot wrestling down in Nekoosa, then came home and watched the victorious end of the Assumption girls basketball game via livestream.

I call that a pretty nice day. 

Aloha!

Playoff Bonuses

Between the NFC Wild Card Game and the Sentry Tournament of Champions final round, we got some bonus viewing time today.

Even though the Vikings were playing the Saints at high noon, I still turned on the lights on our purple tree for good luck and made sure I had our flag turned to the "visitor" side. Now we gotta keep the flag flying and that tree alive another week!

It's kind of fun coming into a game as the underdog. There's an all or nothing attitude and we fans are just happy with anything good! It was nice to be surprised that we could pull ahead and keep that lead. Until the very end of course. Saints field goal tied us up at 20. Over time, baby!

From experience and much heartbreak, I never feel good about overtime! Thanks for proving me wrong this once, Vikes. SKOL! We live to play another week!! No, not the Packers. Yet.

After my heart rate returned to normal, I switched to the soothing game of golf. "Our" tournament in Maui started live coverage at 5 p.m. our time. That wasn't as calming to watch because there was back-and-forth leaders and a crazy three-way playoff in the end. (More time for our commercials to air. Yay.)

In the end, just before sunset there and way past my bedtime here, Justin Thomas won!

Might add value to my autographed flag! Or at least something I can add to the "story."

And it was a good day for happily ever after stories. The end.

Aloha Friday

At this year’s Sentry Tournament of Champions, the players and our staff and special guests observed Aloha Friday—a weekly Maui tradition when people unwind a little, don Hawaiian shirts, and celebrate pau hana together at the end of the work week. Pau hana means “work is finished” in Hawaiian—think of it as a Friday happy hour.

For those of us unable to be on Maui this weekend, we brought a Pau Hana Party to our headquarters in Stevens Point. Our Pau Hana party included yummy food like the cupcakes pictured above, plus a chance to watch the golf action...

I'm the short one!

And take selfies or group pictures at our photo booth areas...

My resting beach face to be sure!

It was fun and a great way to unwind after a two-day work week. Hey, somebody's gotta do it.

Aloha!

The Not-So-Golden Globes

All those news stories today about who got snubbed at the Golden Globes last night and I didn't see my name anywhere.

Yup. In all the real-life drama of the weekend, I failed to mention I had my national television debut! For real.

As I mentioned last week, our company sponsored the Sentry Tournament of Champions this weekend in Maui. You saw my pictures of our mini-golf fun at the office. Well some of our marketing guys took video, too. Thought it was for an internal project but no, they sent it to the NBC Golf Channel in case they wanted to show viewers what was happening back at Sentry headquarters during the tournament.

And they showed them. For real. Drum roll...

Crazy cool, right? Practically needed crowd control at the office today. But no worries, I have plenty of time for autographs all around!

If the Office Can't Go to Maui, Maui Comes to the Office

Aloha! The Sentry Tournament of Champions teed off today in Maui. It's kind of big deal for us at work since our company is the title sponsor. And, many of us (especially in Marketing) put in a lot of work to prep for the main event and our side events. Some members of our team are there and for the rest of us, we just brought the island to Stevens Point!

To coincide with the start of the PGA event, we had our own putting contest at work today, plus handed out leis and pina colada cake! I helped with the golf hole – after sinking my own hole in one, of course!

The player has to putt it into the tube and from there it will veer left into the "ocean" or right across the island and into the hole. Or close to it.

You can see the volcanic craters come into play here. Not really. They are one-dimensional!

Just like at the tournament, people can pose in our famous Blue Chairs – used in our print ads and the TV commercials airing during the tournament!

Co-worker Andy and I taking our job seriously.

And we have miniature replicas of the chairs, too! 

I told hubby I was having a busy day at the office. Only I didn't text him this picture.

I sent him this one with our friend Tom instead. Pretty sure Jim understands a little more each day why I love my job! Still... would love to be on the real Maui. But hey, been there, done that. This way I can wear a Hawaiian shirt at work and still see my baby off to the opposite side of the other ocean.

Aloha!

Colorful Fall Finale

Sometimes you gotta second guess Mother Nature. She may look intimidating, but wait her out. Maybe she'll play nice.

Thankfully she did today. While a majority of co-workers in our golf league opted for rain checks, my partner Tom and I held off, keeping a close eye on the radar. The sun had peeked out from behind the clouds a few times during the day so we had hope. It was our last week for league golf so we had our fingers crossed.

Finally at 3 p.m. we committed to it and decided we'd golf at 4 p.m. The forecast of 80 percent chance of rain be damned.

It was a good decision. Not only did Mother Nature keep us dry, she put on quite a show at SentryWorld.

Tough finding your ball if you got off the fairway. But of course we never did. Yeah, right.

And because Noah is working on his second ark, we also had keep carts off the course. Cart path only. And some of the cart paths were a but under the weather, so to speak.

Couldn't get over the mild temperatures and beautiful fall colors for our league finale.

Although we almost had the course to ourselves since no one was braving the bad weather, there was some wildlife enjoying it. Tried to get close to this crane thing but he flew off. Probably saw my drive and was a bit intimidated by me.

So much color everywhere. Just couldn't stop taking pictures. Pictures turned out better than my score, but I'm OK with that. Had a great summer and feel privileged that I got to golf at such a great course on our "campus."

Sometimes it's a good idea to take the path of least resistance at the "office," right?