I'm Ba-a-ack!

I realize it was silly to encourage people who received my Christmas card to visit my daily blog, then take 3 days off. But here I am again -- after surviving 80-plus hours with no computer, no Internet, no Facebook. Yup, I was north of Highway 8 -- that invisible line that separates the Northwoods from the rest of the world.

I haven't even unpacked my bags yet, but I figured I better blog first. There's a good chance when my bed is cleared of my clothes and crap that I'll jump right in!

My long weekend in a nutshell...

Friday: Had a brief shopping excursion in Eau Claire and finally found that something special for that special hard-to-buy-for someone on my list. Yay! Got to my twin's at supper time and we just had a laid-back evening of cleaning and chit-chatting.

Saturday: The whole family (within driving distance) showed up for lunch and cookie baking. There was little baking, but lots of eating and talking and laughing and eating and playing games. Learned a fun new game called something like Telestrations -- sort of like the games Telephone and Pictionary combined. Funny stuff. I didn't even win and I didn't care (and that says a lot). It was a great day.

Sunday: Yup, I woke up to this lovely sight! I completely forgot they had mentioned snow in the forecast. Thankfully, it was mostly gone by afternoon. I left my sister's and went down to my parents near Luck for the afternoon and evening. Mom and Dad taught Carter and me a new card game called Dirty Rummy (or "You can call it Nasty Rummy," says Mom). Dad won the first game and Mom won the second. In between, they let me watch my Vikings play (and win, naturally), then served up a delicious supper of my mom's yummy meatballs and mashed potatoes. It's good to be home!

Monday: There was a reason I stayed at my parents' last night. I had to help at a photo shoot for work that was on my way from Luck to Rapids. It was a classy auto restoration place that impressed both Carter and me. In this photo, he stands (not touching!) by a multi-million-dollar Daimler that is just one of 12 in the whole world. Cool stuff. I told his teacher about it ahead of time and she was OK with him having a "work experience" day off from school. I made sure I took a picture of him by a Jaguar, too, to show the kids at school!

We got home just in time to unload our multi-thousand-dollar CRV and get ready for Carter's first basketball game of his career. It was not a very good game, but hey, you gotta start somewhere. Shooting, Carter was 0 for 1 and he had one foul -- AND he had 3 steals, too! They lost 36-10. But he had fun, lots of fun, and that's what counts, right?

Speaking of fun, I better go pay attention to that other guy that lives here...