It Worked Out In My Purple Favor

Last night I blogged before I had to address the Monday Night Football situation. I mean even you Packer fans don't like the Bears so we have some solidarity there.

But I was not convinced during the first half that our very VERY young QB could rise to the occasion. I am so glad I was proven wrong. Especially since our two-week United Way campaign began at work today and the dress-up theme was favorite team.

Yup, I wore the lovely bracelet above plus my now favorite shirt...

The one Jim and I wore to a game last year! We are still hoping for one Super Bowl win in our lifetimes.

Let me just clarify. There were a few more Viking fans at work and they commented on needing a shirt like mine. We all know the pain and struggles. Then, since I went straight from work to shoot middle school football, I was wearing the shirt and a guy from the opposing team (Iola-Scandinavia in this case) asked if he could take a picture of my shirt.

Maybe creepy but I trust he's been through the same pain. Maybe Purple Power will carry us all (well some of us) through the week!

May the Course Be With You

It was a great day at the office today – since 6+ hours of it was golfing for United Way! Hey, it's all for the kids! 

Our company's theme for this year's fundraising campaign is United is the Way so it naturally lent itself to some Star Wars themes. (Above) Which is why I teed off by Yoda (who I am taller than!) on the first hole.

But wait, this is a fundraiser! So we paid $20 to spin the wheel and we lucked out with the Luke and Princess Leia ball placement. Making it an easy birdie on our first hole!

Later on the course we ran into one of our fellow marketing dudes who was videoing things for the event. But was totally in costume!

Here's me trying to use my throat-crushing powers for good! Though coincidentally have Darth on our hole helped get my drive on the par-3 green. Let's not examine if my powers lean more to the dark side.

To be honest, most of the day was fighting wind (you can see above) instead of evil. But we can't deny that when it was behind us, it was an actual helpful factor.

Despite the morning chills (I'm serious about the wake-up temps of 52 degrees) it turned out to be a pleasant day with some cursing – but consistently gorgeous views. And so many laughs. 

I'm wishing us all a great week with continuous out-of-this-galaxy golf outing feels! 😁

Cheers to TGIF

It's been quite a busy week at work while we "work" to have fun for our United Way campaign. One of the fundraisers was "Send a beer and a smile" so people could give someone a Point Rootbeer and smiley cookie.

Two very nice people sent me beers and smiles. So I got a tasty cookie for breakfast yesterday! Feeling the love.

Speaking of love... after worked I raced down to Rapids so I shoot some pictures of our Lady Royals tennis team. It was Senior Night so I got there in time for that anyway, and the first love-love serve! 

From there I headed down to the Lake Camelot area to take some senior pictures. This handsome young man also happens to be on the Shermalot Waterski Show Team I photograph. So it was no surprise that after a few "land shots," we were in the boat!

That was so fun to see him show off his bare-footing skills! Fun. 

I even got a bare-footing father-son duo photo!

I think ON THE WATER is my favorite new photo shoot location. Just sayin'!

Maybe we all be in for some this weekend!

Charity Combined with Clarity

My company takes our United Way campaign very seriously. So thankfully today, that meant a scoop of delicious King Cone ice cream – for a good cause of course!

It also meant raffle baskets and thanks to our marketing department, an incredible book fair. Oh gosh, if you have a favorite author or book title in mind, you need to let me know ASAP as this sale/fair only goes through Wednesday!

Of course my clarity in life came on the golf course after work today. A bit windy so there were actually waves on the water holes. But not bad versus the super high humidity and temps of previous weeks.

Of course, we're still so blessed we get to golf at SentryWorld and play the back 9 for league just enough to experience an appreciate the Flower Hole.

Still looking pretty in September!

Something my two black thumbs could never accomplish!

Since were into mid-September almost, we've got the bonus sunset views.

And wildlife, too! We loved that they didn't care about our tee shots. There was obviously tasty in the grass by the 18th tee box!

I had a great round – despite some required mulligans to keep me happy. Worked out just fine to cap off a day of doing good for United Way. 

More to come for the next 2 weeks. Hope you all have a chance this time of year to support a very good cause!

Cursing, er Golfing, for a Cause

It's not a bad Monday morning at work when you're hanging out with the CEO. On the first tee that is.

Thankfully, he's a good golfer, too, and we could use his drive on the first hole, too. For a good cause.

Today was our second day of golf outings to support the United Way (plus we'll have 2 weeks of activities in September). Last Wednesday and today. But today was like, hey, it's MONDAY, what else would you rather be doing??

Our foursome was our usual golf league foursome of marketing co-workers Tom, Patrick, Lisa, and me. Since we knew we had notchance of winning versus those 18 under par types, we could curse our bad drives/putts and just had fun!

On a few holes we could "pay a pro" to get close to the hole. I mean, they are pretty good! That included our famous Flower Hole at SentryWorld. We were fortunate to play it in it's prime bloom!

Plus, we birdied it, so that added even more to the beauty!

I pretty much couldn't stop taking pictures of the flowers. But we did get through the last 2 holes – and finish 6 under par. Great for us!!

The only downside was that we had to return to actual work the rest of the day. For a good cause, right?

Generous Rewards

If anyone claims people who work in marketing have the most fun, then yup, they're right. But sometimes we have to earn the fun.

We recently had our United Way campaign at work and since 100% of our 60-person department participated, our generosity was rewarded with a special event. In this case: Beer and BINGO. Well, beer, other beverages, BINGO and the all important pizza!!

I've just gotta say that after last week's failure at axe-throwing, I redeemed myself.

I got a BINGO when we had to form the letter S. And won a fabulous prize of campfire marshmallow roasting sticks. This is definitely my sport! I mean if axe-throwing and bowling are sports, then surely BINGO belongs in that same category.

I also tried my hand at BAGS (aka Corn Hole, aka Bean Bag Toss) and I sunk a few in the hole. There was much rejoicing – mainly by novice me – but still it was fun.

Got home and all the cabinets and our new wall border are installed. I'd love to show pictures, but I think I'll wait until countertops hopefully are installed in the next week to show a sincere "before and after"! So far, we love, love it.

It's like I can't stop winning! Bring on my much-earned 3-day weekend.

Different Kind of Fall Colors

I'm ignoring the sporadic fall colors popping up before it's even mid-September. But today I got to enjoy some different fall colors. First it was the 44-degree wake-up temperature accompanied by fog on the way to work.

Fog and a sunrise that is. So that was pretty cool!

My mid-day color was a bit more conventional. As part of our two-week United Way campaign, King Cone made an appearance in our parking garage. Yes!!

After work, the clouds were a dark gray before opening up just about our tee time on our last night of golf season! So we commenced to meeting at the 19th hole and enjoyed a little time together. When the rain stopped, we all headed home.

And there was more color on my way home. Just over the businesses on Division Street in Stevens Point. 

Then, when I turned onto Deer Road to make my final leg home, there was more color.

When I got home, I thought I'd share one more color scheme from my visit to my hair artist last night. Definitely can't compare to nature's beauty. But also definitely not boring.

Find the color in your week, my friends!

Swinging For A Good Cause

I know there are all kinds of golf outings that serve as fundraisers. But at my work, out United Way scrambles are pretty big deals. And my regular league night foursome and I were ready to contribute and play at the full-blooming SentryWorld today.

Taking a nod from our U.S. Senior Open champion Bernhard Langer, our team was called Moves Like Langer. Not to be confused with Maroon 5's Moves Like Jagger, quite obviously our inspiration for playing a little air guitar before teeing off on Hole 1.

After 2 heat waves days and at least 3 more predicted this week, I'm not sure how we were blessed with a cloudy 74-degree day. But we'll take it!

Thanks to some extra United Way donations "for pro hits", we were in position to make some decent putts today. I even sunk our albattoss putt and had to create a far superior dance compared to my par dance and birdie dance! And it was. Thankfully, no pictures or video.

Lisa and I held up our part from the women's tees. In the end, we finished 5 under par. Not bad for a day's work, eh? And for a good cause, of course.

The fun thing is that the 4 of us return to SentryWorld tomorrow night for "regular" golf league. I suspect we'll keep the scramble format going just for how fun it is! And that unbelievably great score.

Plus the legit heat wave returns Tuesday so we may want to do it for self-preservation.

Be careful out there this week!

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! 

No Time to Smell the Flowers

Golf league resumed tonight for our Thursday night crew. Due to the volume of employees who want to be on the league each year, our foursome doesn't go every week in the summer. Had most of July off but now our Thursday night group will continue through August.

Tonight we had a perfect night for it, too! Hardly a cloud in the sky and pleasant, non-humid temperatures to boot! 

We realized teeing off that this is the same foursome we'll have in our United Way scramble next Wednesday. So we scrambled tonight as a preview and let me tell you...

We won't be winning any major awards but we sure had fun. Laughed so much. Just had a super time and it was much-needed for all of us. We didn't play the back 9 with the famous Flower Hole but stopped for a picture after our round so we could enjoy it for a moment.

Seriously, if you don't have an activity where you can laugh, grunt and curse simultaneously, you're missing out. May tomorrow bring you reasons to at least smile and, if you're lucky, give you time to stop and smell the flowers.

Golf United

We are approaching the conclusion of our two-week United Way campaign at work. Although it's pretty different this year since we're not AT work. All events are virtual, which means I'm missing out on daily bake sales and even non-fattening fun, too! 

Our company has stepped up its efforts knowing that no matter how different it is for us as employees, there are still people who need the services United Way provides. Every. Single. Day. So we have to remain diligent in our dedication to give – even virtually.

One of the virtual events was a golf scramble, where we can pair up with a co-worker and golf anywhere during these two weeks. Just pay/donate and submit your score card. My friend Tom and I who normally are golf partners for league, managed to get out tonight after work. Finally.

Yes, starting at 4 p.m., we were racing against time and the setting sun.

And yes, we walked 18 holes and sunk our last putt for par as the sun was about set! We did it! Just a little over 3 hours for 18 holes. That's not normal, folks. And it's not because we had all birdies or anything. Tri-City is just an easily walkable course.

We did have super weather on our side. And it was just plain nice to see a co-worker in person – all while supporting a great cause. 

I hope you have the opportunity at your work or in your community to give to the United Way. Despite everything going on in the world, it's pretty easy to do.

#liveunited

 

Sundae, Monday, Tuesday

I have a little bit of a love-hate relationship with ice cream. I mean I LOVE it. But I HATE that it has calories. That's it in a nutshell. Or waffle cone.

Today, though, I was going to pass it up. Honest.

You've heard of the Freshman 15 for college kids. There's also what I call the Festive 15 over the holidays. And now we have the Fundraising 15. Yes, it's a thing.

All this week and next week at work we are doing our big United Way campaign. And I mean big. Huge. Like we raised over a million dollars last year big. So to raise that, we have a crazy calendar with daily bake sales and lunches and afternoon snacks. Along with lots and lots of raffles and fun activities (you recall our mini-golf course last year).

Today, some of us walked over to the new office building to buy lunch for a good cause. Got back to our building and caught the end of a bake sale. Will have to eat that tomorrow since I was too full from my hot ham and cheese sandwich and chips and lemon bar lunch. I actually told my boss: "Mark your calendar. I'm too full to have ice cream today." There was no way I'd venture upstairs for the afternoon Ice Cream Sundae Bar.

But an hour later, I'm like: "Two scoops, please."

I'm hopeless. I have not willpower whatsoever... when it comes to donating to charity. OK. Or to ice cream. But yeah, it IS for a good cause. And it was yummy. And yes, almost painful to enjoy because I really WAS that full.

There's always that little compartment for ice cream, though. Always.

And possibly something else. We'll see what's on the menu, er agenda, for tomorrow's fundraising events! No judging. It's for a good cause, folks.