Sport Shorts

The last 48 hours have pretty much been all sports. Yes, it was SUPER Sunday yesterday. What that meant was that is was "Souper Sunday" at church with a fundraiser for the food pantry/soup kitchen.

Then, I got home in time to watch legit LIVE Olympics coverage of team figure skating.

The Quad God for the win! I mean, WOW. How fun to watch!

After that, I did pop over to what I believe is like the 44th annual SuperBowl party in our friend Chet's basement! Said hello to all and participated in some "investment opportunities" (which yielded nothing!), then came home to actually watch the game and/or flip with Olympics coverage.

Boring game if you ask me. I like the ones that are super close and down to the last second! But that's just me.

Today was a work from home day that ALMOST had me wishing for a lunch hour with Mr. Deck Chair.

Oooh this high temperature was amazing. Obviously not sit outside for endless hours, but still so refreshing!

After work, I continued on my sports quest with Lady Royals middle school hoops. Turned out we were hosting Stratford – home of all the Austin clan that I'm related to (through marriage). Didn't take me long to recognize their coach as Jim's cousin's daughter. Then, when I talked to her at halftime, she said one of the players belonged to another cousin's daughter... so granddaughter. How fun. I then had players from both teams to shoot pictures of. 

Just got done editing and uploading pictures. And since I know what happened with co-ed curling and ice dancing today, I don't need to watch the delayed Olympic coverage. Or do I?

All the time delays... I just don't know. Go USA! And Royals! And, yes, Stratford!

Winter Skates on Out of Here

Had a spontaneous change of plans today and it turned out to be cold (like winter) but pretty entertaining.

A couple of figure skating moms had offered me a free ticket to their annual show this weekend. I declined because I thought it was Friday and Saturday. Since there was one final show today at 1 p.m., I accepted the kind offer from the neighbor and decided to go.

One of the little girls from church – well now a high schooler – was in it and had a solo so that was awesome to see. Then there were at least a half dozen Assumption students of different ages skating. That was cool to see, too.

The theme was Out of This World so all the song selections were related to the sun, moon, stars, or space. That takes a lot of creativity. 

Of course with the lights off and spotlights only, trying to capture decent pictures took some creativity, too. At least I got a few of the girls I wanted to. Here's a few so you see the different ages and abilities...

Appropriate that it was chilly in there just so we wouldn't think winter was completely out the door. Pretty sure that's it for me inside the skating rink until hockey in the fall.

Until we meet again, Mr. Zamboni. Be sure Old Man Winter is on board when you ride out!

Shakin' Things Up

Just like Wal-Mart wasted no time switching up from Valentine's Day merch to Easter (and those darn good peanut eggs), Mickey D's followed suit. Thankfully, they didn't skip past St. Patty's Day.

It just happened that Carter had errands to run in to town during his lunch hour. So he did the right thing at McDonald's and ordered a small Shamrock Shake for his mama. Yep. I may have the best son ever. Just sayin'.

Will that be my ONE for the season? We'll see. It was a small after all.

I did my best to work it off after work. We'll also see if that worked! I came home and sorted through pictures from last night's girls games against Manawa. Both JV and varsity dominated. Then I decided to watch some Olympics and never made it to the boys game tonight. But they won. By a lot. Yay! 

So not to shake things up too much, I'll probably head back to my recliner per usual and catch some "live" women's figure skating. Since it's not for the medal tonight, I will also not shake up my bedtime either! 

Shake me if I become too predictable!

If You Kn-O, You Kn-O

Not your ordinary Olympic rings, are these? Well, if you know, you know. If you don't, well, you're missing out.

Tonight I replaced my Olympic O's with the O's of Ozark. Finally hubby and I were home on the same night at the same time and we could get started on season 4 of this dark but addicting drama on Netflix. 

We knocked off two episodes tonight and now I need to watch some funny or uplifting so I don't dream about murder and mayhem in Arkansas! 

Perhaps I could rewatch Nathan Chen's performance from last night. It was a very late night but worth it. Worth its wait, er weight, in gold actually. He did an amazing routine to Elton John's Rocket Man and I hope that becomes his new nickname. Ha. In fact, Sir Elton gave him a shout out today....

Pretty sure that's worth its weight in gold, too! At least something shiny and sparkly akin to Elton's taste. How fun. 

Maybe I'll just listen to Rocket Man or Bennie and the Jets before going to dreamland. Did you know happy thoughts are always at our fingertips? If you know, you know. 

And now we all know. Take care out there. And smile.

On a Time Out

Going forward, I'd appreciate it if all the Olympics were held in the Central Time Zone. I'm sure we can find enough snow here!

As it is, I'm blogging quickly now so I don't miss the men's figure skating final with Nathan Chen going for the gold. If it's anything like the other night, it'll start at 10:30 p.m. Central Time. I might need a quick time out and nap. 

Did few projects after work that I'll have to tell you about after I gift them. Also baked some cookies for the in-laws. Full day. No time time learn the quad or triple toe-loop, but I'm betting on Nathan! 

Ope, disclaimer, not actually betting, but cheering him on with high hopes.

Go, Team USA! 

Sit and Spin

I didn't realize my favorite parts of the Olympics were starting tonight already BEFORE the opening ceremonies tomorrow. So this serves as your warning that blogs will be sporadic for the next 9 days – or whatever it is. 

Kitty and I are ready to virtually try the triple axles and the Salchow (which we call the Sow Cow) and the double toe and lutz thingy plus the sit and spin camel thingy, too. All without getting dizzy of course. Or heaven forbid, injured.

I did get into the spirit tonight before I got home and realized events were starting. Was at the girls hoops game against Athens. Both teams have similar records and for the first many, many minutes, our Lady Royals were down. We're talking 16-3 or something like that. I was too stressed to take pictures at that point.

But then like Olympians, they rallied for their country, er school, and worked as a team to come back and take the lead. They ended up winning by 64-38!

The lesson here and during these Olympics will be try your hardest and never give up. I mean if Sylvester can do the camel spin, anyone with two legs certainly can! 

Go team USA!

Hello, Spring

The official first day of spring according to the calendar – and it actually felt like it for once! Sunny and breezy, but look at that temperature!

The snow is finally gone from our yard so what to my wondering eyes should appear but... some recipes my neighbor Cindy had put in our mailbox in January. On a windy and snowy day in January. By the time I got out to the mailbox that day, they'd blown out from the newspaper box area and were buried in snow. Somewhere.

I now have recipes for instant chai tea and crockpot lasagna soup. Pretty sure I can make those in any season, right?

Today was also the last day to do the virtual Point Bock Run. It usually falls the first weekend of March. This year they had to do it virtually and we had three weeks to get our times in. So Cindy and I walked around the lake plus another mile to do the 5-mile "event." Had someone along the route take our picture since we already got the shirts a few weeks ago! It was a gorgeous day for a long walk! 

We also let some fresh air into the house. And since it was so nice out, hubby and I had brats on the grill for supper. Just tastes like summer! 

Of course, I closed off the first day of spring with the most winter-like thing possible: ice skating.

Not me. Just a dozen or so young ladies I know in the 2021 Ice Show by the Wisconsin Rapids Figure Skating Club. Brooke (pictured) invited me and of course there were several other Assumption students, plus two young ladies from my church. Lots of talent, that's for sure.

I'll confess it's much more difficult to shoot than hockey. More like the challenges of a dance recital. Low lights, spotlights, and several people performing at once, all over the place. I'm pretty sure I'll be disappointed in most of my pictures, but if I get a few decent ones of each of those kids, I'll consider it a victory.

And say goodbye to winter once and for all. 

Singlet Saturday

Singlet: Now there's something I don't need to type again – or see – for a year.

I say that but the reality is I did not go to wrestling regionals today under duress. It was under my own power. My own volunteerism.

It happened that one of our Assumption kids on the combined Nekoosa-Assumption-Port Edwards team was out most of the season on crutches. Now he's back and today was potentially the last opportunity to get any photos of him. It's only fair that the high school yearbook staff has images of all of four of our Royal wrestlers. Right?

So I traveled over to Almond-Bancroft High School – really only like 20-some minutes away – this morning with action to start at 10:30 a.m. It went pretty quickly for having several rounds and I was home by 3 p.m. Two of the Royals are regional champions so it was actually pretty cool to be a part of that. For the record, I am not traveling 2 hours away next week for sectionals. My work here is done.

Didn't do much the rest of the day besides upload photos and catch the Olympics here and there. Opening ceremony in South Korea was yesterday. I don't really care what's live and what isn't. I just like to watch. And not just figure skating, though I love that.

Since was hubby was down in the Dells watching Royals hoops, Sylvester sat down with me to watch some of the luge action. When a German guy was competing, she turns to me and says, "You mean you could have named me Wolfgang?"

I know. Way cool name. But you still look more like the Looney Tune Sylvester, so you're stuck with that. Though, we could add a middle name. The next competitor was Tucker something. Plenty of cool names in the Olympics. I may have to keep a list!

And the announcers have interesting names for the participants, too. A 5-foot-5 racer was considered "diminutive." I'm not even tall enough to be diminutive! Olympic dreams... shattered.

Guess I'll stick to photographing the action.

Qualifying Rounds

I'm sitting here in the basement flipping back and forth between football playoffs and U.S. figure skating. So pardon me if I get my third-down conversion confused with my triple lutz!

Contestants in both competitions just want to win their qualifying rounds so they can move onto the big games. While I am pretty sure I know the football players well enough, I do not follow figure skating in the off season. And by "off season" I mean the entire season between winter Olympics. Now that the 2014 games are some 3 weeks away, it's time to reacquaint myself with the sequined and Spandexed U.S. representatives.

Yes, I do enjoy football, but I am somewhat of an Olympics junkie.And if I can watch some of these Americans in action now, I will feel a better connection in a few weeks.

Plus, I am so full from supper, I can't move my butt off the couch.

We decided to take Carter out to eat after his long, rough week -- between tons of homework, getting sick and then having to work last night. Poor kid.

He chose Buffalo Wild Wings so off to Stevens Point we went for some hot and spicy food. And it was very hot and spicy and did not disappoint. Cleaned out all our sinuses!

We watched to end of the Seahwks-Saints game there and got home before the Patriots-Colts game. Looks like New England got out to an early lead so I might just stick with the double axle excitement.

Go USA!