Swinging Fore a Good Paws Cause

Mondays get a bad rep. Mondays are awesome when you're not working and you're swinging FORE a good PAWS instead!

Today was the inaugural fundraising golf scramble event for the Wood County K-9 Fund. It was cleverly called Swing 'Fore' Paws.

And we were swinging for guys like Ace here and other fur buddies in the department. I knew a few of the organizers and they've been working on this for about a year and frankly, it showed. We could tell by all the sponsors and volunteers and crazy amount of raffles and other prizes that they put a lot of hard work into this.

And one pretty big sponsor as well.

My foursome today was Sue, Pam and Jackie – who I golf with on Mondays when I sub for the ladies league at the Ridges. So last Monday we had a scramble. Then I had scrambles Wednesday and Saturday with league in between. Yup. Fifth time swinging in the past 8 days. 

And shooting.

Oh yes. On one of the holes we could shoot our drive out of a cannon-type gun. Let me tell you, that's the way to get decent yardage! Can't say I've ever done that before but I definitely would do it again!

And the weather was super gorgeous, too. Just a really fun day off, that's for sure.

I didn't stick around long enough to see if I won any raffles since I had book club at 5:30. (Priorities!) Pretty sure I didn't win anything. Also pretty sure I've never shelled out more 20-dollar bills in a week's time than this one with all these scrambles and raffles and stuff. Good causes, but dang. I need to spread them out more.

On the plus side, I bet I'm gonna sleep good tonight! 

Probably dream about big slobbery sweeties! 

No Joke

Not really April Fools related, but I've now been out of the office 757 days. Whoa. That's seems like a joke to me!

We allegedly will be returning in the coming months – maybe summer since we've already jumped into a new month. In the meantime, I'll deal with the humor of the other guy who has an office in this building.

This afternoon as he headed out the door to go work his church fish fry, he exclaimed something like, "#$#$%&%$ I didn't know I stepped in dog poop and I've tracked it all over house!" Of course, I thought it was an April Fools' joke because, well, we don't have a dog!

But a half dozen of them live in the 'hood. And apparently they either pooped where they weren't supposed, or Jim walked where he wasn't supposed to. Either, the hallway looks like a Paper Towel Covering Resolve Carpet Cleaner Landmine.

Happy April 1st.

Hope it didn't stink.

Son-Day Fun Day

Because my car was begging me to log a thousand miles this weekend, I headed down to Iowa this morning. That and the fact my baby boy mentioned he and his lady friend are dog-sitting for her dad on his boat – parked in a marina on the Mississippi River in Dubuque. He said I'd love it and I said I'll see for myself.

And really, I had absolutely nothing on my agenda today. So why not make Sunday a Son-Day?

Since hubby had some other obligations, it was just me and my camera road-tripping. Carter and I headed downtown for lunch. Ate a cute cafe called Charlotte's Coffee Shop. We sat outside on a deck and when I saw the above mural just half a block away, I of course suggested a stroll after dinner! 

Later, we went downtown for ice cream (of course) and I got some more pictures of murals painted around town. Pretty cool stuff. My computer is moving slow so maybe I'll share those tomorrow night. I know you wanna see the dogs. Ha.

This is Jack. He's still a puppy and full of energy.

This is Charlie. He's 3 years old and doesn't want anyone loving "his" puppy more than him. 

And here's the back of the boat. Don't worry, we didn't take it anywhere with Gilligan in charge!

And zooming in on Carter and Mamie. They love the dogs and recognize cats are easier to take care of! 

Got home by 9 p.m. (It's only a 3-hour drive). And it was worth the long day. I did some nice photos that I'll share tomorrow (I'll give you one sneak peek below) – but it's bedtime. I may have fallen 5.7 miles short of a thousand, but this girl is tired.

Storm Chaser

Three things caused me a bit of stress today: 1) work, 2) seeing a snake in the front yard (thank you, neighbor dogs for racing over to rescue me after my scream), and 3) walking out of my deep-tissue massage session to a deep and darkening sky.

You've heard of storm chasers. Well I actually had the storm chasing me. It was coming in from the west and both the storm and I were heading east.

I was a storm "racer" – but hitting every red light trying to race it home.

This light turned green pretty quickly, but not as quickly as the clouds above were moving. Look how sunny and undisturbed life is up ahead to the east. Poor people!

It got windy and rainy here with a bit of lightning, but none of the hail they predicted. Yet. The baseball and softball teams were up in Wausau and Jim said they had lightning in the 6th inning. They were losing 7-0 anyway. Darn.

So I just stayed home and worked on some stuff for my Alaska Trip. Today's countdown...

It finally dawned on me tonight that whoa, that's only 3 weeks from today! Wow. My sister and I both have a lot to do in normal life between now and then. Hopefully nothing too stressful to deal with in the meantime... like, you know, snakes and storms.

Be careful out there! 

Dog Days of Summer Vacation

The dog days of summer vacation are doggone awesome! If I do say so myself.

Got to spend my morning with Oakley...

His big brother Max and their momma Chris, sipping frothy coffee and catching up!

Then, I got to spend the afternoon with Buddy...

His brother Blue and their momma Cindy, sitting under the shade tree, shootin' the breeze.

Then I got to spend the evening with hubby, toasting 18 years together (tomorrow), stuffing ourselves with the amazing food at Two Lakes Supper Club... and bringing home a DOGGY bag of carrot cake. You knew there was a dog in there somewhere. And I can't call him an old dog... until his birthday Friday. Yup. It's one special week on Blue Jay Drive.

Made more special with girlfriend (and dog) time today, too! Summer vacation is pretty awesome thing when I think about it.

Big is Beautiful

Good news. I learned today that the elusive "summer body" is not required in a state that doesn't have summer. So there you go, Wisconsinites and Minnesotans. We're good so far. And you're welcome.

I was further reminded today that being big can be beautiful. Take Blue, for instance. He is a big sweetie! And we say that to his face. "You're so big!" "Look how big you're getting!" And he takes no offense.

Even his "big" brother Buddy doesn't mind that people compare their sizes. He just loves his "little" brother Blue.

Why can we be more like dogs?? I mean, I don't want anyone pointing out to me, "Look how big you're getting, Robyn!" But I wish I could brush it off (literally, ha) when I think those things about myself – or imagine others thinking that. Just because we have a thick waists doesn't mean we have thick skins, right?

It would be nice if I could go with Buddy and Blue to the groomer tomorrow and shave a few inches off! Too easy, though. Instead I am trying to exercise – again. Do yourself a favor and don't stop exercising because starting again is sooooo hard. I did one little workout yesterday with lunges and squats and it was all I could do to walk today, let alone keep up with the boys on leashes! Yikes.

I'll just keep moving forward and remind myself that just because I see myself as "big," doesn't mean I am THAT big. Case in point...

Look at this big, beautiful bouquet of flowers!

Nope. Not so big after all.

Don't judge yourself by your size. Judge whether someone thinks you're a big sweetie. And just wants to hug you and love you.

That's what counts. Big time.