Age May Just Be A Number

People who don't want to admit their age often say age is just a number. Leave it to Dwight from The Office to correct us all. Age is really just a word! And this is how I know the number that word represents is inconsequential...

This evening we took Jim's Aunt Colleen out for fish with his Uncle Dick and Aunt Jane. When I am 94 (yes, she's 94), I hope I can go out for fish fries with handsome men like this and be able to charm the waiter, too!

Yes, Colleen is still nursing her broken heart from when Uncle Frank died 18 months ago, but she's a good reminder that a person can persevere and look good doing it.

When we got back home, we popped over to the first night of Corn Fest in Kellner – our little unpopulated town out here in the town of Grand Rapids. Jim's classmate Todd (pictured) was rockin' with his band Rising Phoenix! And I mean rockin'! Age is not even a number for this guy. He says he feels happy and healthy and that's all the matters.

So find something you love to do. Find someone you love who you can share it with. Have fun.

And rock on!

Social Hours

This is my brain right now after two full days of a Digital Summit that focused heavily on social media – trends, content, platforms, you name it. The only thing that wasn't social was me.

I know. Hard to believe. I actually started to feel a bit old when I overheard a "girl" mention her father-in-law is 38 years old. Nope. I take that back. I didn't feel old. I felt ancient!

But not too old to learn. I pride myself that I as familiar (or even use) most of what was talked about. It was a very fast-paced two days. Half-hour sessions with either 10 or 15 minutes between. Believe me. My brain is full! Pretty cool and interesting speakers though.

Enjoyed hearing Randi Zuckerberg yesterday. Her brother is Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook. Perhaps you've heard of him. She had her role at that silly start-up years ago, too. And now empowers female entrepreneurs. Very impressive.

Had the evening free last night so walked around downtown Minneapolis, since that's where the conference was  and where I was staying.

Got to bond with my fellow news girl Mary Tyler Moore! Yup. A random stranger took the goofy picture of me and didn't bat an eye.

I wandered a bit and found myself at the downtown Target and naturally found...

All kinds of Vikings and Twins goodies. This is SKOL coffee, which I did not buy. I failed to exercise willpower on a Vikings shirt (or 2) and a Twins license plate holder. What? They're cheaper at Target than at the stadium! (*me justifying*)

Today the conference ended at 4:30 p.m., just in time to head home in rush hour traffic. Certainly makes me appreciate driving in rural Wisconsin – even with the deer. Feels good to be home safely so I can rest my brain and body.

Honestly, other than blogging quick, I have no desire to interact right now. It's anti-social hour now!

Minnesota Welcomes Me

Worked this morning then headed to Minneapolis for a work conference.  And this is how Minnesota welcomed me. Dark clouds then driving rains, literally when I crossed the border.

Throw in some traffic jams and it was not my version of "Minnesota nice." Still, I arrived OK this evening, had an excellent Juicy Lucifer Burger at Hell's Kitchen downtown, and now...

Am enjoying some time in Twins Territory.  Figures I'm in Minnesota and they're playing in Milwaukee so I could've watched them on TV at home! Hopefully I can still bring good luck as long as I'm here.

Plus, I have a view of the Vikings stadium from my hotel room, so I'm finally feeling that Minnesota Nice vibe.

A Twinkie win tonight would be especially NICE. Just saying.

Silver Linings and Such

Not sure if hubby is quoting a country song or a John Wayne movie, but when I stress about something and it goes my way, he often says "The Lord looks out for drunks and ne-er do-wells."

Does it matter which category I'm in? Not really. It's true though. But I like to think of it as finally finding that silver lining in the cloud!

Today a big cloud came out. And I stressed. It was one of those things that were sort of in my control, but not really.

We were scheduling a trip for work and I said I didn't have any conflicts this fall except for my sister weekend in late September. So it ended up that Oct. 1-3 worked the best. I don't know what calendar I was looking at, because I completely overlooked going to Hamilton... on Oct. 2! Oh no!

I've been waiting two years to go, knowing it was going on tour and coming to the Fox Cities in 2019. I bought season tickets in March just so I could be sure to get tickets for this show. Now what?

Although I try to have a work-life balance, I didn't want to miss the work thing since it's one of my video shoots and I should be there. And it was completely my fault that I overlooked my own personal event of the year on my calendar! So I looked at the performing arts center site and saw that people can do ticket exchanges.

And the deadline to exchange Hamilton tickets is... tomorrow! I guess silver lining #1 that this all came about today.

I checked with my friend who has tickets with me and she was thankfully available for all other days during the two weeks Hamilton is showing. Silver lining #2.

I managed to get on the website tonight and get those tickets exchanged for the Friday night show that same week, sitting in about the same spot – so no charge. I did not even have to pay for my idiocy! Silver lining #3.

Thank you, Lord. For looking out for this overbooked lost sheep!

Royal Blue Crew

I love modern technology! With it, you can get a group of 20 – mostly classmates and some spouses – together in a Milwaukee Brewers parking lot...

So they can eat pulled pork, corn-on-the-cob, brats, and other tailgating staples...

And drink a few beverages...

Catch up with old friends...

Make new friends...

Oh, and watch a baseball game!

Thanks to modern technology, you can also...

Locate and hold a mini-family reunion with Up North cousins in Section 124...

And connect with friends from Wisconsin Rapids because, well, Brewer games are what people do!

We did have 4 non-Brew Crew fans in the group. From left: Twins, Cubs, Twins, and Reds. We still cheered on the Brewers, though, with polite golf claps. They just couldn't score! Ended up losing 1-0 to the Texas Rangers.

Still, had a great time. The weather cooperated. And traffic in and out was practically painless – especially when we weren't driving.

Thanks for letting me be Austy's plus-one today, class of '81. It was a whole lotta fun!

Sun-Up to Sun-Down

Today's full-schedule Saturday is brought to you by these three images reflecting sun-up to sun-down...

First my green thumb... Kidding. I still have two black thumbs but I do have a skillful shutter finger. Got to see some of these – and many more – gorgeous flowers during a senior photo shoot this morning. It was someone's private property and they have their island (yes, their island) decked out for summer. Just a beautiful setting! And the young man was easy to work with, too!

Speaking of young men... It's been a year since I took this guy's senior pictures and now tomorrow morning he is shipping off to Basic Training. Got to spend a few hours at Craig's combined Graduation-Navy sendoff party this afternoon. I see good things happening for this kiddo!

Got home in time to meet some friends in Kellner and caravan to Two Lakes Supper Club. Yup, third time this summer going there. Crazy because when we went last summer it had been the first time in probably 15 years. It's like we needed to be reminded how incredibly amazing their food is! No one in our group of 9 was disappointed. We all walked (or waddled) away completely full. The photo above is what's left of my coconut shrimp. Nothing but the placemat, baby! So good!

Now it's early to bed and early to rise. We've got a Brewers trip at dawn with a whole passel of hubby's Assumption classmates and their spouses. For those of you keeping score at home – yup, this is the third professional baseball game this week. That's how we empty nesters roll, I guess.

Try to keep up. 

(And don't mock me when I fall asleep at work come Monday. I still gotta see about adding a day between Sunday and Monday. If I had any money left after all our summer fun, I'd pay for that!

None of Your Beeswax

This will age me, but... I remember as a kid that we'd sometimes say, "None of your beeswax!" or "Mind your own beeswax!" instead of "Mind your own business!" So clever we were.

Fast forward a few decades and now we are trying to mind the beeswax and save the bees!

Apparently, the South Wood County Historical Museum in Wisconsin Rapids is doing their part. Since the storm cleanup there is done, I was taking some senior pictures after work today. And caught the buzz.

 
Since I know nothing about gardening, I don't know what this flower is, but it sure was popular.

Need a closer look? That's how many bees were right there! And that's just a fraction!

Was grateful hubby wasn't with me, since he's deathly allergic. I am mildly allergic, too. But the bees and me, we had a deal. I'd mind my own beeswax and they'd mind theirs!

So I got the photo shoot done and can now commence to a busy weekend of fun. What are we doing? Oh, none of your beeswax!

Ahh, c'mon. You know I'll share!